Methods of limited buffer rate-matching (lbrm), pre-emption, and sidelink syncrhonization in new radio (nr) system

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of a User Equipment (UE), Generation Node-B (gNB) and methods of communication are disclosed herein. The UE may attempt to decode sidelink synchronization signals (SLSSs) received on component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation. In one configuration, synchronization resources for SLSS transmissions may be aligned across the CCs at subframe boundaries in time, restricted to a portion of the CCs, and restricted to a same sub-frame. The UE may, for multiple CCs, determine a priority level for the CC based on indicators in the SLSSs received on the CC. The UE may select, from the CCs on which one or more SLSSs are decoded, the CC for which the determined priority level is highest. The UE may determine a reference timing for sidelink communication based on the one or more SLSSs received on the selected CC.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 17/185,623, filedFeb. 25, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/181,808, filed Nov. 6, 2018, titled “Methods of Limited BufferRate-Matching (LBRM), Pre-emption, and Sidelink Synchronization in NewRadio (NR) Systems”, which claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.62/582,841, filed Nov. 7, 2017, and to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/584,631, filed Nov. 10, 2017, and to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/587,200, filed Nov. 16, 2017.All the aforementioned Applications are incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. The claims in the instant application are differentthan those of the parent application and/or other related applications.The Applicant therefore rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope made inthe parent application and/or any predecessor application in relation tothe instant application. Any such previous disclaimer and the citedreferences that it was made to avoid, may need to be revisited. Further,any disclaimer made in the instant application should not be read intoor against the parent application and/or other related applications.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments pertain to wireless communications. Some embodiments relateto cellular communication networks including 3GPP (Third GenerationPartnership Project) networks, 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks,3GPP LTE-A (LTE Advanced) networks, New Radio (NR) networks, and 5Gnetworks, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in thisrespect. Some embodiments relate to limited buffer rate-matching (LBRM).Some embodiments relate to pre-emption. Some embodiments relate tovehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. Some embodiments relate tosidelink communication.

BACKGROUND

Base stations and mobile devices operating in a cellular network mayexchange data. As demand for mobile services and high data ratesincreases, various challenges related to reliability and capacity mayarise. In an example scenario, a large number of users may demand accessto the network, which may result in an increase in overhead and acorresponding decrease in overall efficiency. In another examplescenario, a target latency for a user and/or application may berelatively low, and it may be challenging for the system to deliver inan efficient manner. Accordingly, there is a general need for methodsand systems to implement communication between the base station and themobile devices in these and other scenarios.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a functional diagram of an example network in accordance withsome embodiments;

FIG. 1B is a functional diagram of another example network in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates a user device in accordance with some aspects;

FIG. 4 illustrates a base station in accordance with some aspects;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary communication circuitry according tosome aspects;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a radio frame structure in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B illustrate example frequency resources in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates the operation of a method of communication inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates the operation of another method of communication inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates example frame arrangements in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 11 illustrates example operations in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 12 illustrates example operations in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example arrangement of resources in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 14 illustrates example arrangements of slots in accordance withsome embodiments;

FIG. 15 illustrates example arrangements of symbols, bits, andpartitions in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 16 illustrates example arrangements of partitions in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 17 illustrates example arrangements of partitions in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 18 illustrates example arrangements of time resources and frequencyresources in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 19 illustrates examples of carrier aggregation in accordance withsome embodiments;

FIG. 20 illustrates an example of carrier aggregation in accordance withsome embodiments; and

FIG. 21A and FIG. 21B illustrate examples of carrier aggregation inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustratespecific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practicethem. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical,process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodimentsmay be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments.Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalentsof those claims.

FIG. 1A is a functional diagram of an example network in accordance withsome embodiments. FIG. 1B is a functional diagram of another examplenetwork in accordance with some embodiments. In references herein, “FIG.1 ” may include FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B. In some embodiments, the network100 may be a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network. Insome embodiments, the network 150 may be a 3GPP network. In anon-limiting example, the network 150 may be a new radio (NR) network.It should be noted that embodiments are not limited to usage of 3GPPnetworks, however, as other networks may be used in some embodiments. Asan example, a Fifth Generation (5G) network may be used in some cases.As another example, a New Radio (NR) network may be used in some cases.As another example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) may be used insome cases. Embodiments are not limited to these example networks,however, as other networks may be used in some embodiments. In someembodiments, a network may include one or more components shown in FIG.1A. Some embodiments may not necessarily include all components shown inFIG. 1A, and some embodiments may include additional components notshown in FIG. 1A. In some embodiments, a network may include one or morecomponents shown in FIG. 1B. Some embodiments may not necessarilyinclude all components shown in FIG. 1B, and some embodiments mayinclude additional components not shown in FIG. 1B. In some embodiments,a network may include one or more components shown in FIG. 1A and one ormore components shown in FIG. 1B. In some embodiments, a network mayinclude one or more components shown in FIG. 1A, one or more componentsshown in FIG. 1B and one or more additional components.

The network 100 may comprise a radio access network (RAN) 101 and thecore network 120 (e.g., shown as an evolved packet core (EPC)) coupledtogether through an S1 interface 115. For convenience and brevity sake,only a portion of the core network 120, as well as the RAN 101, isshown. In a non-limiting example, the RAN 101 may be an evolveduniversal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN). In anothernon-limiting example, the RAN 101 may include one or more components ofa New Radio (NR) network. In another non-limiting example, the RAN 101may include one or more components of an E-UTRAN and one or morecomponents of another network (including but not limited to an NRnetwork).

The core network 120 may include a mobility management entity (MME) 122,a serving gateway (serving GW) 124, and packet data network gateway (PDNGW) 126. In some embodiments, the network 100 may include (and/orsupport) one or more Evolved Node-B's (eNBs) 104 (which may operate asbase stations) for communicating with User Equipment (UE) 102. The eNBs104 may include macro eNBs and low power (LP) eNBs, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the network 100 may include (and/or support) one ormore Next Generation Node-B's (gNBs) 105. In some embodiments, one ormore eNBs 104 may be configured to operate as gNBs 105. Embodiments arenot limited to the number of eNBs 104 shown in FIG. 1A or to the numberof gNBs 105 shown in FIG. 1A. In some embodiments, the network 100 maynot necessarily include eNBs 104. Embodiments are also not limited tothe connectivity of components shown in FIG. 1A.

It should be noted that references herein to an eNB 104 or to a gNB 105are not limiting. In some embodiments, one or more operations, methodsand/or techniques (such as those described herein) may be practiced by abase station component (and/or other component), including but notlimited to a gNB 105, an eNB 104, a serving cell, a transmit receivepoint (TRP) and/or other. In some embodiments, the base stationcomponent may be configured to operate in accordance with a New Radio(NR) protocol and/or NR standard, although the scope of embodiments isnot limited in this respect. In some embodiments, the base stationcomponent may be configured to operate in accordance with a FifthGeneration (5G) protocol and/or 5G standard, although the scope ofembodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, one or more of the UEs 102, gNBs 105, and/or eNBs104 may be configured to operate in accordance with an NR protocoland/or NR techniques. References to a UE 102, eNB 104, and/or gNB 105 aspart of descriptions herein are not limiting. For instance, descriptionsof one or more operations, techniques and/or methods practiced by a gNB105 are not limiting. In some embodiments, one or more of thoseoperations, techniques and/or methods may be practiced by an eNB 104and/or other base station component.

In some embodiments, the UE 102 may transmit signals (data, controland/or other) to the gNB 105, and may receive signals (data, controland/or other) from the gNB 105. In some embodiments, the UE 102 maytransmit signals (data, control and/or other) to the eNB 104, and mayreceive signals (data, control and/or other) from the eNB 104. Theseembodiments will be described in more detail below.

The MME 122 is similar in function to the control plane of legacyServing GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN). The MME 122 manages mobility aspectsin access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management.The serving GW 124 terminates the interface toward the RAN 101, androutes data packets between the RAN 101 and the core network 120. Inaddition, it may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-eNBhandovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Otherresponsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policyenforcement. The serving GW 124 and the MME 122 may be implemented inone physical node or separate physical nodes. The PDN GW 126 terminatesan SGi interface toward the packet data network (PDN). The PDN GW 126routes data packets between the EPC 120 and the external PDN, and may bea key node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. It mayalso provide an anchor point for mobility with non-LTE accesses. Theexternal PDN can be any kind of IP network, as well as an IP MultimediaSubsystem (IMS) domain. The PDN GW 126 and the serving GW 124 may beimplemented in one physical node or separated physical nodes.

In some embodiments, the eNBs 104 (macro and micro) terminate the airinterface protocol and may be the first point of contact for a UE 102.In some embodiments, an eNB 104 may fulfill various logical functionsfor the network 100, including but not limited to RNC (radio networkcontroller functions) such as radio bearer management, uplink anddownlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling,and mobility management.

In some embodiments, UEs I 02 may be configured to communicateOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signalswith an eNB 104 and/or gNB 105 over a multi carrier communicationchannel in accordance with an Orthogonal Frequency Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA) communication technique. In some embodiments, eNBs 104and/or gNBs 105 may be configured to communicate OFDM communicationsignals with a UE 102 over a multicarrier communication channel inaccordance with an OFDMA communication technique. The OFDM signals maycomprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

The SI interface 115 is the interface that separates the RAN 101 and theEPC 120. It may be split into two parts: the S1-U, which carries trafficdata between the eNBs 104 and the serving GW 124, and the SI-MME, whichis a signaling interface between the eNBs 104 and the MME 122. The X2interface is the interface between eNBs 104. The X2 interface comprisestwo parts, the X2-C and X2-U. The X2-C is the control plane interfacebetween the eNBs 104, while the X2-U is the user plane interface betweenthe eNBs 104.

In some embodiments, similar functionality and/or connectivity describedfor the eNB 104 may be used for the gNB 105, although the scope ofembodiments is not limited in this respect. In a non-limiting example,the S1 interface 115 (and/or similar interface) may be split into twoparts: the S1-U, which carries traffic data between the gNBs 105 and theserving GW 124, and the S1-MME, which is a signaling interface betweenthe gNBs 105 and the MME 122. The X2 interface (and/or similarinterface) may enable communication between eNBs 104, communicationbetween gNBs 105 and/or communication between an eNB 104 and a gNB 105.

With cellular networks, LP cells are typically used to extend coverageto indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to addnetwork capacity in areas with very dense phone usage, such as trainstations. As used herein, the term low power (LP) eNB refers to anysuitable relatively low power eNB for implementing a narrower cell(narrower than a macro cell) such as a femtocell, a picocell, or a microcell. Femtocell eNBs are typically provided by a mobile network operatorto its residential or enterprise customers. A femtocell is typically thesize of a residential gateway or smaller and generally connects to theuser's broadband line. Once plugged in, the femtocell connects to themobile operator's mobile network and provides extra coverage in a rangeof typically 30 to 50 meters for residential femtocells. Thus, a LP eNBmight be a femtocell eNB since it is coupled through the PDN GW 126.Similarly, a picocell is a wireless communication system typicallycovering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls,train stations, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. A picocell eNB cangenerally connect through the X2 link to another eNB such as a macro eNBthrough its base station controller (BSC) functionality. Thus, LP eNBmay be implemented with a picocell eNB since it is coupled to a macroeNB via an X2 interface. Picocell eNBs or other LP eNBs may incorporatesome or all functionality of a macro eNB. In some cases, this may bereferred to as an access point base station or enterprise femtocell. Insome embodiments, various types of gNBs 105 may be used, including butnot limited to one or more of the eNB types described above.

In some embodiments, the network 150 may include one or more componentsconfigured to operate in accordance with one or more 3GPP standards,including but not limited to an NR standard. The network 150 shown inFIG. 1B may include a next generation RAN (NG-RAN) 155, which mayinclude one or more gNBs 105. In some embodiments, the network 150 mayinclude the E-UTRAN 160, which may include one or more eNBs. The E-UTRAN160 may be similar to the RAN 101 described herein, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the network 150 may include the MME 165. The MME165 may be similar to the MME 122 described herein, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect. The MME 165 may performone or more operations or functionality similar to those describedherein regarding the MME 122, although the scope of embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the network 150 may include the SGW 170. The SGW170 may be similar to the SGW 124 described herein, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect. The SGW 170 may performone or more operations or functionality similar to those describedherein regarding the SGW 124, although the scope of embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the network 150 may include component(s) and/ormodule(s) for functionality for a user plane function (UPF) and userplane functionality for PGW (PGW-U), as indicated by 175. In someembodiments, the network 150 may include component(s) and/or module(s)for functionality for a session management function (SMF) and controlplane functionality for PGW (PGW-C), as indicated by 180. In someembodiments, the component(s) and/or module(s) indicated by 175 and/or180 may be similar to the PGW 126 described herein, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect. The component(s) and/ormodule(s) indicated by 175 and/or 180 may perform one or more operationsor functionality similar to those described herein regarding the PGW126, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.One or both of the components 170, 172 may perform at least a portion ofthe functionality described herein for the PGW 126, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect.

Embodiments are not limited to the number or type of components shown inFIG. 1B. Embodiments are also not limited to the connectivity ofcomponents shown in FIG. 1B.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlinktransmissions from an eNB 104 to a UE 102, while uplink transmissionfrom the UE 102 to the eNB 104 may utilize similar techniques. In someembodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlinktransmissions from a gNB 105 to a UE 102, while uplink transmission fromthe UE 102 to the gNB 105 may utilize similar techniques. The grid maybe a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequencyresource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in eachslot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practicefor OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resourceallocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid correspond toone OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration ofthe resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radioframe. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted asa resource element (RE). There are several different physical downlinkchannels that are conveyed using such resource blocks. With particularrelevance to this disclosure, two of these physical downlink channelsare the physical downlink shared channel and the physical down linkcontrol channel.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, orinclude an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electroniccircuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory(shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software orfirmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitablehardware components that provide the described functionality. In someembodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functionsassociated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or moresoftware or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry may includelogic, at least partially operable in hardware. Embodiments describedherein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configuredhardware and/or software.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine in accordancewith some embodiments. The machine 200 is an example machine upon whichany one or more of the techniques and/or methodologies discussed hereinmay be performed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 200 mayoperate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) toother machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 200 may operatein the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both inserver-client network environments. In an example, the machine 200 mayact as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed)network environment. The machine 200 may be a UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105,access point (AP), station (STA), user, device, mobile device, basestation, personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a smart phone, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a singlemachine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software asa service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

Examples as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic or anumber of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangibleentities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations andmay be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example,circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to externalentities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. Inan example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., astandalone, client or server computer system) or one or more hardwareprocessors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g.,instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a modulethat operates to perform specified operations. In an example, thesoftware may reside on a machine readable medium. In an example, thesoftware, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causesthe hardware to perform the specified operations.

Accordingly, the term “module” is understood to encompass a tangibleentity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specificallyconfigured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily)configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or toperform part or all of any operation described herein. Consideringexamples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of themodules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example,where the modules comprise a general-purpose hardware processorconfigured using software, the general-purpose hardware processor may beconfigured as respective different modules at different times. Softwaremay accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, toconstitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitutea different module at a different instance of time.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 200 may include a hardware processor202 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit(GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a mainmemory 204 and a static memory 206, some or all of which may communicatewith each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 208. The machine 200 mayfurther include a display unit 210, an alphanumeric input device 212(e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 214(e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display unit 210, input device 212and UI navigation device 214 may be a touch screen display. The machine200 may additionally include a storage device (e.g., drive unit) 216, asignal generation device 218 (e.g., a speaker), a network interfacedevice 220, and one or more sensors 221, such as a global positioningsystem (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. Themachine 200 may include an output controller 228, such as a serial(e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless(e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connectionto communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., aprinter, card reader, etc.).

The storage device 216 may include a machine readable medium 222 onwhich is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 224(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of thetechniques or functions described herein. The instructions 224 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 204,within static memory 206, or within the hardware processor 202 duringexecution thereof by the machine 200. In an example, one or anycombination of the hardware processor 202, the main memory 204, thestatic memory 206, or the storage device 216 may constitute machinereadable media. In some embodiments, the machine readable medium may beor may include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Insome embodiments, the machine readable medium may be or may include acomputer-readable storage medium.

While the machine readable medium 222 is illustrated as a single medium,the term “machine readable medium” may include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers) configured to store the one or moreinstructions 224. The term “machine readable medium” may include anymedium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructionsfor execution by the machine 200 and that cause the machine 200 toperform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, orthat is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used byor associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine readablemedium examples may include solid-state memories, and optical andmagnetic media. Specific examples of machine readable media may include:non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g.,Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), ElectricallyErasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removabledisks; magneto-optical disks; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM andDVD-ROM disks. In some examples, machine readable media may includenon-transitory machine readable media. In some examples, machinereadable media may include machine readable media that is not atransitory propagating signal.

The instructions 224 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 226 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device 220 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols(e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission controlprotocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include alocal area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet datanetwork (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellularnetworks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless datanetworks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family ofstandards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, a LongTerm Evolution (LTE) family of standards, a Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P)networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device 220may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, orphone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communicationsnetwork 226. In an example, the network interface device 220 may includea plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one ofsingle-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. In someexamples, the network interface device 220 may wirelessly communicateusing Multiple User MIMO techniques. The term “transmission medium”shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machine200, and includes digital or analog communications signals or otherintangible medium to facilitate communication of such software.

FIG. 3 illustrates a user device in accordance with some aspects. Insome embodiments, the user device 300 may be a mobile device. In someembodiments, the user device 300 may be or may be configured to operateas a User Equipment (UE). In some embodiments, the user device 300 maybe arranged to operate in accordance with a new radio (NR) protocol. Insome embodiments, the user device 300 may be arranged to operate inaccordance with a Third Generation Partnership Protocol (3GPP) protocol.The user device 300 may be suitable for use as a UE 102 as depicted inFIG. 1 , in some embodiments. It should be noted that in someembodiments, a UE, an apparatus of a UE, a user device or an apparatusof a user device may include one or more of the components shown in oneor more of FIGS. 2, 3, and 5 . In some embodiments, such a UE, userdevice and/or apparatus may include one or more additional components.

In some aspects, the user device 300 may include an applicationprocessor 305, baseband processor 310 (also referred to as a basebandmodule), radio front end module (RFEM) 315, memory 320, connectivitymodule 325, near field communication (NFC) controller 330, audio driver335, camera driver 340, touch screen 345, display driver 350, sensors355, removable memory 360, power management integrated circuit (PMIC)365 and smart battery 370. In some aspects, the user device 300 may be aUser Equipment (UE).

In some aspects, application processor 305 may include, for example, oneor more CPU cores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltageregulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such asserial peripheral interface (SPI), inter-integrated circuit (VC) oruniversal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC),timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purposeinput-output (10), memory card controllers such as securedigital/multi-media card (SD/MMC) or similar, universal serial bus (USB)interfaces, mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interfaces andJoint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports.

In some aspects, baseband module 310 may be implemented, for example, asa solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board,and/or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

FIG. 4 illustrates a base station in accordance with some aspects. Insome embodiments, the base station 400 may be or may be configured tooperate as an Evolved Node-B (eNB). In some embodiments, the basestation 400 may be or may be configured to operate as a Next GenerationNode-B (gNB). In some embodiments, the base station 400 may be arrangedto operate in accordance with a new radio (NR) protocol. In someembodiments, the base station 400 may be arranged to operate inaccordance with a Third Generation Partnership Protocol (3GPP) protocol.It should be noted that in some embodiments, the base station 400 may bea stationary non-mobile device. The base station 400 may be suitable foruse as an eNB 104 as depicted in FIG. 1 , in some embodiments. The basestation 400 may be suitable for use as a gNB 105 as depicted in FIG. 1 ,in some embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, aneNB, an apparatus of an eNB, a gNB, an apparatus of a gNB, a basestation and/or an apparatus of a base station may include one or more ofthe components shown in one or more of FIGS. 2, 4, and 5 . In someembodiments, such an eNB, gNB, base station and/or apparatus may includeone or more additional components.

FIG. 4 illustrates a base station or infrastructure equipment radio head400 in accordance with some aspects. The base station 400 may includeone or more of application processor 405, baseband modules 410, one ormore radio front end modules 415, memory 420, power management circuitry425, power tee circuitry 430, network controller 435, network interfaceconnector 440, satellite navigation receiver module 445, and userinterface 450. In some aspects, the base station 400 may be an EvolvedNode-B (eNB), which may be arranged to operate in accordance with a 3GPPprotocol, new radio (NR) protocol and/or Fifth Generation (5G) protocol.In some aspects, the base station 400 may be a Next Generation Node-B(gNB), which may be arranged to operate in accordance with a 3GPPprotocol, new radio (NR) protocol and/or Fifth Generation (5G) protocol.

In some aspects, application processor 405 may include one or more CPUcores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltage regulators(LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I²C oruniversal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC),timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purposeIO, memory card controllers such as SD/MMC or similar, USB interfaces,MIPI interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports.

In some aspects, baseband processor 410 may be implemented, for example,as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

In some aspects, memory 420 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magneto-resistiverandom access memory (MRAM) and/or a three-dimensional cross-pointmemory. Memory 420 may be implemented as one or more of solder downpackaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memorycards.

In some aspects, power management integrated circuitry 425 may includeone or more of voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarmdetection circuitry and one or more backup power sources such as abattery or capacitor. Power alarm detection circuitry may detect one ormore of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions.

In some aspects, power tee circuitry 430 may provide for electricalpower drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the base station 400 using a single cable. In someaspects, network controller 435 may provide connectivity to a networkusing a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet. Networkconnectivity may be provided using a physical connection which is one ofelectrical (commonly referred to as copper interconnect), optical orwireless.

In some aspects, satellite navigation receiver module 445 may includecircuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or morenavigation satellite constellations such as the global positioningsystem (GPS), Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS),Galileo and/or BeiDou. The receiver 445 may provide data to applicationprocessor 405 which may include one or more of position data or timedata. Application processor 405 may use time data to synchronizeoperations with other radio base stations. In some aspects, userinterface 450 may include one or more of physical or virtual buttons,such as a reset button, one or more indicators such as light emittingdiodes (LEDs) and a display screen.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary communication circuitry according tosome aspects. Circuitry 500 is alternatively grouped according tofunctions. Components as shown in 500 are shown here for illustrativepurposes and may include other components not shown here in FIG. 5 . Insome aspects, the communication circuitry 500 may be used for millimeterwave communication, although aspects are not limited to millimeter wavecommunication. Communication at any suitable frequency may be performedby the communication circuitry 500 in some aspects.

It should be noted that a device, such as a UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105,the user device 300, the base station 400, the machine 200 and/or otherdevice may include one or more components of the communication circuitry500, in some aspects.

The communication circuitry 500 may include protocol processingcircuitry 505, which may implement one or more of medium access control(MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol(PDCP), radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS)functions. Protocol processing circuitry 505 may include one or moreprocessing cores (not shown) to execute instructions and one or morememory structures (not shown) to store program and data information.

The communication circuitry 500 may further include digital basebandcircuitry 510, which may implement physical layer (PHY) functionsincluding one or more of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD)functions, scrambling and/or descrambling, coding and/or decoding, layermapping and/or de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symboland/or bit metric determination, multi-antenna port pre-coding and/ordecoding which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency orspatial coding, reference signal generation and/or detection, preamblesequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generationand/or detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and otherrelated functions.

The communication circuitry 500 may further include transmit circuitry515, receive circuitry 520 and/or antenna array circuitry 530. Thecommunication circuitry 500 may further include radio frequency (RF)circuitry 525. In an aspect of the disclosure, RF circuitry 525 mayinclude multiple parallel RF chains for one or more of transmit orreceive functions, each connected to one or more antennas of the antennaarray 530.

In an aspect of the disclosure, protocol processing circuitry 505 mayinclude one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) toprovide control functions for one or more of digital baseband circuitry510, transmit circuitry 515, receive circuitry 520, and/or radiofrequency circuitry 525.

In some embodiments, processing circuitry may perform one or moreoperations described herein and/or other operation(s). In a non-limitingexample, the processing circuitry may include one or more componentssuch as the processor 202, application processor 305, baseband module310, application processor 405, baseband module 410, protocol processingcircuitry 505, digital baseband circuitry 510, similar component(s)and/or other component(s).

In some embodiments, a transceiver may transmit one or more elements(including but not limited to those described herein) and/or receive oneor more elements (including but not limited to those described herein).In a non-limiting example, the transceiver may include one or morecomponents such as the radio front end module 315, radio front endmodule 415, transmit circuitry 515, receive circuitry 520, radiofrequency circuitry 525, similar component(s) and/or other component(s).

One or more antennas (such as 230, 312, 412, 530 and/or others) maycomprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including,for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loopantennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable fortransmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) embodiments, one or more of the antennas (such as 230, 312, 412,530 and/or others) may be effectively separated to take advantage ofspatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that mayresult.

In some embodiments, the UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105, user device 300, basestation 400, machine 200 and/or other device described herein may be amobile device and/or portable wireless communication device, such as apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer withwireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, asmartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, adigital camera, an access point, a television, a wearable device such asa medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor,etc.), or other device that may receive and/or transmit informationwirelessly. In some embodiments, the UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105, userdevice 300, base station 400, machine 200 and/or other device describedherein may be configured to operate in accordance with 3GPP standards,although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. Insome embodiments, the UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105, user device 300, basestation 400, machine 200 and/or other device described herein may beconfigured to operate in accordance with new radio (NR) standards,although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. Insome embodiments, the UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105, user device 300, basestation 400, machine 200 and/or other device described herein may beconfigured to operate according to other protocols or standards,including IEEE 802.11 or other IEEE standards. In some embodiments, theUE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105, user device 300, base station 400, machine 200and/or other device described herein may include one or more of akeyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, agraphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobiledevice elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touchscreen.

Although the UE 102, eNB 104, gNB 105, user device 300, base station400, machine 200 and/or other device described herein may each beillustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or moreof the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented bycombinations of software-configured elements, such as processingelements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or otherhardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or moremicroprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequencyintegrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware andlogic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein.In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or moreprocesses operating on one or more processing elements.

Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware,firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented asinstructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may beread and executed by at least one processor to perform the operationsdescribed herein. A computer-readable storage device may include anynon-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storagedevice may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM),magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memorydevices, and other storage devices and media. Some embodiments mayinclude one or more processors and may be configured with instructionsstored on a computer-readable storage device.

It should be noted that in some embodiments, an apparatus of the UE 102,eNB 104, gNB 105, machine 200, user device 300 and/or base station 400may include various components shown in FIGS. 2-5 . Accordingly,techniques and operations described herein that refer to the UE 102 maybe applicable to an apparatus of a UE. In addition, techniques andoperations described herein that refer to the eNB 104 may be applicableto an apparatus of an eNB. In addition, techniques and operationsdescribed herein that refer to the gNB 105 may be applicable to anapparatus of a gNB.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a radio frame structure in accordancewith some embodiments. FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate example frequencyresources in accordance with some embodiments. In references herein,“FIG. 7 ” may include FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B. It should be noted that theexamples shown in FIGS. 6-7 may illustrate some or all of the conceptsand techniques described herein in some cases, but embodiments are notlimited by the examples. For instance, embodiments are not limited bythe name, number, type, size, ordering, arrangement and/or other aspectsof the time resources, symbol periods, frequency resources, PRBs andother elements as shown in FIGS. 6-7 . Although some of the elementsshown in the examples of FIGS. 6-7 may be included in a 3GPP LTEstandard, 5G standard, NR standard and/or other standard, embodimentsare not limited to usage of such elements that are included instandards.

An example of a radio frame structure that may be used in some aspectsis shown in FIG. 6 . In this example, radio frame 600 has a duration of10 ms. Radio frame 600 is divided into slots 602 each of duration 0.5ms, and numbered from 0 to 19. Additionally, each pair of adjacent slots602 numbered 2i and 2i+1, where i is an integer, is referred to as asubframe 601.

In some aspects using the radio frame format of FIG. 6 , each subframe601 may include a combination of one or more of downlink controlinformation, downlink data information, uplink control information anduplink data information. The combination of information types anddirection may be selected independently for each subframe 602.

Referring to FIGS. 7A and 7B, in some aspects, a sub-component of atransmitted signal consisting of one subcarrier in the frequency domainand one symbol interval in the time domain may be termed a resourceelement. Resource elements may be depicted in a grid form as shown inFIG. 7A and FIG. 7B.

In some aspects, illustrated in FIG. 7A, resource elements may begrouped into rectangular resource blocks 700 consisting of 12subcarriers in the frequency domain and the P symbols in the timedomain, where P may correspond to the number of symbols contained in oneslot, and may be 6, 7, or any other suitable number of symbols.

In some alternative aspects, illustrated in FIG. 7B, resource elementsmay be grouped into resource blocks 700 consisting of 12 subcarriers (asindicated by 702) in the frequency domain and one symbol in the timedomain. In the depictions of FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B, each resource element705 may be indexed as (k, l) where k is the index number of subcarrier,in the range 0 to N·M−1 (as indicated by 703), where N is the number ofsubcarriers in a resource block, and M is the number of resource blocksspanning a component carrier in the frequency domain.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UE 102 may attempt to decodesidelink synchronization signals (SLSSs) received on component carriers(CCs) of a carrier aggregation. In one configuration of the carrieraggregation, synchronization resources for SLSS transmissions may bealigned across the CCs at subframe boundaries in time, restricted to aportion of the CCs, and restricted to a same sub-frame. The UE 102 may,for each of the CCs on which one or more SLSSs are decoded, determine apriority level for the CC based on indicators in the SLSSs received onthe CC. The UE 102 may select, from the CCs on which one or more SLSSsare decoded, the CC for which the determined priority level is highest.The UE 102 may determine a reference timing for sidelink communicationbased on the one or more SLSSs received on the selected CC. Theseembodiments are described in more detail below.

FIG. 8 illustrates the operation of a method of communication inaccordance with some embodiments. FIG. 9 illustrates the operation ofanother method of communication in accordance with some embodiments. Itis important to note that embodiments of the methods 800, 900 mayinclude additional or even fewer operations or processes in comparisonto what is illustrated in FIGS. 8-9 . In addition, embodiments of themethods 800, 900 are not necessarily limited to the chronological orderthat is shown in FIGS. 8-9 . In describing the methods 800, 900,reference may be made to one or more figures, although it is understoodthat the methods 800, 900 may be practiced with any other suitablesystems, interfaces and components.

In some embodiments, a UE 102 may perform one or more operations of themethod 800, but embodiments are not limited to performance of the method800 and/or operations of it by the UE 102. In some embodiments, anotherdevice and/or component may perform one or more operations of the method800. In some embodiments, another device and/or component may performone or more operations that may be similar to one or more operations ofthe method 800. In some embodiments, another device and/or component mayperform one or more operations that may be reciprocal to one or moreoperations of the method 800. In a non-limiting example, the gNB 105 mayperform an operation that may be the same as, similar to, reciprocal toand/or related to an operation of the method 800, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, a gNB 105 may perform one or more operations of themethod 900, but embodiments are not limited to performance of the method900 and/or operations of it by the gNB 105. In some embodiments, anotherdevice and/or component may perform one or more operations of the method900. In some embodiments, another device and/or component may performone or more operations that may be similar to one or more operations ofthe method 900. In some embodiments, another device and/or component mayperform one or more operations that may be reciprocal to one or moreoperations of the method 900. In a non-limiting example, the UE 102 mayperform an operation that may be the same as, similar to, reciprocal toand/or related to an operation of the method 800, in some embodiments.

It should be noted that one or more operations of one of the methods800, 900 may be the same as, similar to and/or reciprocal to one or moreoperations of the other method. For instance, an operation of the method800 may be the same as, similar to and/or reciprocal to an operation ofthe method 900, in some embodiments. In a non-limiting example, anoperation of the method 800 may include reception of an element (such asa frame, block, message and/or other) by the UE 102, and an operation ofthe method 900 may include transmission of a same element (and/orsimilar element) by the gNB 105. In some cases, descriptions ofoperations and techniques described as part of one of the methods 800,900 may be relevant to the other method.

Discussion of various techniques and concepts regarding one of themethods 800, 900 and/or other method may be applicable to one of theother methods, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in thisrespect.

The methods 800, 900 and other methods described herein may refer toeNBs 104, gNBs 105 and/or UEs 102 operating in accordance with 3GPPstandards, 5G standards, NR standards and/or other standards. However,embodiments are not limited to performance of those methods by thosecomponents, and may also be performed by other devices, such as a Wi-Fiaccess point (AP) or user station (STA). In addition, the methods 800,900 and other methods described herein may be practiced by wirelessdevices configured to operate in other suitable types of wirelesscommunication systems, including systems configured to operate accordingto various IEEE standards such as IEEE 802.11. The methods 800, 900 mayalso be applicable to an apparatus of a UE 102, an apparatus of an eNB104, an apparatus of a gNB 105 and/or an apparatus of another devicedescribed above.

It should also be noted that embodiments are not limited by referencesherein (such as in descriptions of the methods 800, 900 and/or otherdescriptions herein) to transmission, reception and/or exchanging ofelements such as frames, messages, requests, indicators, signals orother elements. In some embodiments, such an element may be generated,encoded or otherwise processed by processing circuitry (such as by abaseband processor included in the processing circuitry) fortransmission. The transmission may be performed by a transceiver orother component, in some cases. In some embodiments, such an element maybe decoded, detected or otherwise processed by the processing circuitry(such as by the baseband processor). The element may be received by atransceiver or other component, in some cases. In some embodiments, theprocessing circuitry and the transceiver may be included in a sameapparatus. The scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect,however, as the transceiver may be separate from the apparatus thatcomprises the processing circuitry, in some embodiments.

One or more of the elements (such as messages, operations and/or other)described herein may be included in a standard and/or protocol,including but not limited to Third Generation Partnership Project(3GPP), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), Fourth Generation (4G), FifthGeneration (5G), New Radio (NR) and/or other. The scope of embodimentsis not limited to usage of elements that are included in standards,however.

At operation 805, the UE 102 may decode one or more sidelinksynchronization signals (SLSSs). At operation 810, the UE 102 may selecta CC of a carrier aggregation. At operation 815, the UE 102 maydetermine reference timing for sidelink communication. At operation 820,the UE 102 may transmit and/or receive signals as part of the sidelinkcommunication.

In some embodiments, an apparatus of a UE 102 may comprise memory. Thememory may be configurable to store information related to the decodedSLSSs. The memory may store one or more other elements and the apparatusmay use them for performance of one or more operations. The apparatusmay include processing circuitry, which may perform one or moreoperations (including but not limited to operation(s) of the method 800and/or other methods described herein). The processing circuitry mayinclude a baseband processor. The baseband circuitry and/or theprocessing circuitry may perform one or more operations describedherein, including but not limited to decoding the SLSSs. The apparatusmay include a transceiver to receive the SLSSs. The transceiver maytransmit and/or receive other blocks, messages and/or other elements.

At operation 905, the gNB 105 may decode information related toreception capability of a UE 102. At operation 910, the gNB 105 maydetermine parameters and/or configuration information related to limitedbuffer rate-matching (LBRM). At operation 915, the gNB 105 may transmit,to the UE 102, information related to the determined parameters and/orthe configuration information. At operation 920, the gNB 105 may encodea downlink packet in accordance with LBRM. At operation 925, the gNB 105may transmit the downlink packet. At operation 930, the gNB 105 mayreceive an uplink packet. At operation 935, the gNB 105 may decode theuplink packet in accordance with LBRM.

At operation 940, the gNB 105 may determine time resources and/orfrequency resource allocated for pre-emption. At operation 945, the gNB105 may transmit control signaling that indicates the time resourcesand/or the frequency resources allocated for the pre-emption. Atoperation 950, the gNB 105 may transmit a pre-emption indicator thatindicates pre-emption.

In some embodiments, the gNB 105 may perform one or more of operations905-950. However, the gNB 105 may not necessarily perform all ofoperations 905-950, in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the gNB105 may perform one or more of operations 905-935, but may notnecessarily perform operations 940-950. For instance, the gNB 105 mayperform one or more operations related to LBRM, but may not necessarilyperform operations related to pre-emption, in some embodiments. In someembodiments, the gNB 105 may perform one or more of operations 940-950,but may not necessarily perform operations 905-935. For instance, thegNB 105 may perform one or more operations related to pre-emption, butmay not necessarily perform operations related to LBRM, in someembodiments.

In some embodiments, an apparatus of a gNB 105 may comprise memory. Thememory may be configurable to store information related to LBRM. Thememory may store one or more other elements and the apparatus may usethem for performance of one or more operations. The apparatus mayinclude processing circuitry, which may perform one or more operations(including but not limited to operation(s) of the method 900 and/orother methods described herein). The processing circuitry may include abaseband processor. The baseband circuitry and/or the processingcircuitry may perform one or more operations described herein, includingbut not limited to encoding of downlink packets and/or decoding ofuplink packets. The apparatus may include a transceiver to transmitdownlink packets and/or receive uplink packets. The transceiver maytransmit and/or receive other blocks, messages and/or other element.

FIG. 10 illustrates example frame arrangements in accordance with someembodiments. FIG. 11 illustrates example operations in accordance withsome embodiments. FIG. 12 illustrates example operations in accordancewith some embodiments. FIG. 13 illustrates an example arrangement ofresources in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 14 illustratesexample arrangements of slots in accordance with some embodiments. FIG.15 illustrates example arrangements of symbols, bits, and partitions inaccordance with some embodiments. FIG. 16 illustrates examplearrangements of partitions in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 17illustrates example arrangements of partitions in accordance with someembodiments. FIG. 18 illustrates example arrangements of time resourcesand frequency resources in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 19illustrates examples of carrier aggregation in accordance with someembodiments. FIG. 20 illustrates an example of carrier aggregation inaccordance with some embodiments. FIG. 21A and FIG. 21B illustrateexamples of carrier aggregation in accordance with some embodiments. Inreferences herein, “FIG. 21 ” may include FIG. 21A, and FIG. 21B.

It should be noted that the examples shown in FIGS. 10-21 may illustratesome or all of the concepts and techniques described herein in somecases, but embodiments are not limited by the examples. For instance,embodiments are not limited by the name, number, type, size, ordering,arrangement of elements (such as devices, operations, messages and/orother elements) shown in FIGS. 10-21 . Although some of the elementsshown in the examples of FIGS. 10-21 may be included in a 3GPP LTEstandard, 5G standard, NR standard and/or other standard, embodimentsare not limited to usage of such elements that are included instandards.

In some embodiments, a limited buffer rate-matching may include areference transport block size determined based on maximum configuredbandwidth part for reception at the device. In some cases, usage of thistechnique may enable an efficient application of LBRM. In some cases,the usage of this technique may help to reduce decodinglatency/complexity on the device and network side.

In some embodiments, limited buffer rate-matching may be supported forLDPC in NR. In particular, the LDPC matrix design, including the basegraph structure, may take into account the decoding latency savings byenabling base matrix design composed of single-parity-check basedextension for support of lower code rates. This structure may enable anLDPC decoder to operate on a smaller base graph at higher code rates,thereby reducing latency, which may be important for cases such as peakthroughput where typically the UE 102 is operating at relatively highMCS at initial transmissions.

In some embodiments, a network may schedule data using controlinformation that can include resource allocation (for instance,time/frequency resources and number of spatial layers), modulation andcoding scheme (for instance, in terms of a rate and modulation order),pilot information (such as DMRS overhead and/or other) and/or other. Thetransport block size may be determined based on at least the informationsuch as resource allocation and MCS, and any other information (forinstance, using a formula followed by an adjustment).

In a non-limiting example, the following formula and/or similar formulamay be used: TBS_(est)=Q_(m)×R×N_(RE)×N_(L). In the above, Q_(m) denotesthe scheduled modulation order, R denotes the intended rate, and N_(RE)denotes the number of resource elements in the resource allocation onwhich data can be transmitted. In some cases, R×Qm may denote thespectral efficiency, and N_(RE) may be determined from allocatedresources with some adjustments (including e.g. quantization) to accountfor the overhead and quantization, and N_(L) may denote a number oflayers to which the TBS is mapped.

In some embodiments, a nominal data allocation may be a rectangular gridof time-frequency resources (# of OFDM symbols×number of subcarriers).In some embodiments, overheads that may be taken into account caninclude the following: DMRS, SRS, guard periods or symbols indicated as“Unknown” via slot format information (SFI), possible PDCCH, SSS, PSS,PBCH, CSI-RS, and any other overhead explicitly indicated to the UE 102.In some embodiments, a DMRS density may be variable depending upon thepossible configuration (such as front-loaded vs front/back DMRS,different number of antenna ports, presence/absence of TRS, and/orother). In some embodiments, some overhead such as DMRS may be accountedfor while determining the number of REs (NRE). In some embodiments,overhead due to other signals may be accounted for using a semi-staticoverhead value.

In some embodiments, the NRE may be determined using Z*#scheduled PRBs,where Z may be given by 12*number of scheduled OFDM symbols−number ofREs for DMRS−number of REs for overhead. In some embodiments, a numberof REs for overhead may have one value for UL, and one value for DL, andmay be determined semi-statically.

In some embodiments, the TBS_(est) may be further adjusted to obtain atransport block by taking into account the LDPC code block segmentation,and any special rules such as supporting equal code block sizes, as wellas taking into account the corresponding LDPC base graph dimension, etc.In some embodiments, for cases in which there are more than one codeblock (C>1), CRCs may be attached at both transport block and code blocklevel. A non-limiting example 1000 is shown in FIG. 10 .

In some embodiments, NR can support carrier aggregation, whereincomponent carrier bandwidths can be as large as 100 MHz (for below—6 GHzcarrier frequency) or even 400 MHz (for mmWave), supporting flexiblesubcarrier spacing (15 kHz*2^(n)), and up to 4k FFT size. Embodimentsare not limited to the bandwidth sizes given above and elsewhere herein,as any suitable values may be used. Furthermore, for various use cases(such as UE power savings, bandwidth confinement for flexible spectrumusage/coexistence, and/or other) the concept of bandwidth parts may alsobe supported. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may be configured with oneor more bandwidth parts (BWPs) within a given component carrier. Forexample, a UE 102 may be configured with up to four BWPs, and each BWPcan correspond to a set of contiguous resource blocks (or a frequencyrange), which may be indicated to the UE 102 for example, by a bitmapcorresponding to resource blocks in frequency domain. In someembodiments, a resource block can correspond to 12 subcarriers infrequency domain×1 OFDM symbol in time domain.

In a non-limiting example, if the resource blocks corresponding to acarrier are labelled as RB0, RB1, . . . RB274, the following may beused: BWP1=[RB10-RB15], (6 RBs); BWP2=[RB0-RB99], (100 RBs);BWP3=[RB0−RB274], (275 RBs); BWP4=[RB0−RB49], (50 RBs). Embodiments arenot limited to the BWP values given above and elsewhere herein, as anysuitable values may be used.

In some embodiments, the BWP3 can correspond to the bandwidthcorresponding to a component carrier, whereas some BWPs can correspondto a bandwidth smaller than a component carrier. In some embodiments,the network can configure all BWPs to be smaller than the componentcarrier (even if UE 102 can support reception on the bandwidthcorresponding to the entire component carrier).

In some embodiments, the network can indicate an active BWP for the UE102 and the UE 102 can receive and/or transmit based on thecorresponding active BWP resources. For example, if the networkindicates an active BWP for downlink reception, the UE 102 may receivedownlink data and control in the active BWP, and if the networkactivates another BWP for downlink reception, the UE 102 may switch (forexample, subject to switching constraints such as retuning time, etc) tothe activated BWP for downlink reception. In some embodiments, a defaultBWP may also be possible. For example, the default BWP may be indicatedvia the broadcast information such as Master information block,remaining system information, or a control resource set (CORESET) or maybe indicated via initial connection setup or explicit indication via RRCor MAC signalling. Other techniques may be used to indicate the defaultBWP, in some embodiments. In some embodiments, a timer based mechanismcan be supported wherein a UE 102 may switch back to its default activeBWP after a timer expires and various methods of setting up/updating thetimer are feasible.

In some embodiments, for LDPC, decoding latency may depend on the numberof edges in the base graph. Therefore, applying Limited Buffer RateMatching can simultaneously reduce both UE buffer complexity, as well asthe decoding latency at peak data rates. In some embodiments, lowerrates may take more iterations to converge. In some cases, if thetransmit rate-matching is limited to a higher rate than ⅓, it may alsohelp the UE 102 with the decoding latency, or in other words it mayallow the decoder throughput to be not optimized for the worst casealways (i.e. max TBS decoded at lowest coding rate).

In some embodiments, for LBRM, a limitation on the buffer may be appliedas part of the transmit buffer rate-matching. This may be done byapplying a limitation for rate-matching on the circular buffer based on,for example, a reference minimum coding rate (⅔) for the largesttransport block size schedulable for the UE 102 (based on maximum TBSdetermined either by reference configuration in spec or by usingband/band combination signalling from the gNB 105 based on UE 102capability). A non-limiting example to determine the maximum TBSfollows. For an SCS of 30 kHz, BW of 100 MHz, 1 symbol for control, 1symbol for DMRS, and single CW with 4-layers, and 96% BW occupancy, maxQm=8, and max R=94/100, the maximumTBS˜(8×94/100)×(12×0.96×3300)×4=1,143,520˜135 code blocks with BG1 (maxCBS of 8448). Embodiments are not limited to the values given above orto the formula used. Other suitable values and/or similar formulas maybe used, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, a largest transport block schedulable for the UE102 may be determined from reference configuration in the spec, or fromthe signaled peak data rate or calculated data rate from the UE 102 orindicated from the network, based on band combinations and/or basebandcapabilities.

In some embodiments, LBRM can be applied for the downlink and/or uplinkand/or sidelink and/or potential future applications on the sidelinkand/or other. In some embodiments, LBRM can be handled by limiting thecircular buffer size corresponding to code blocks that belong to a largetransport block.

The following descriptions may refer to the downlink, but the scope ofembodiments is not limited in this respect. Some or all of thetechniques, operations and/or methods described below may be applicableto uplink operation, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, for a given component carrier, the referencetransport block size for LBRM (TBS_(LBRM)) can be determined based on atleast one or more of the following: a reference resource allocation inthe frequency domain for the UE 102 (such as a maximum number ofresource blocks in the frequency domain for the component carrier or forthe active or configured BWP for the component carrier and/or otherparameter/value); a reference resource allocation in the time domain forthe UE 102 (such as a maximum number of OFDM symbols and/or otherparameter/value); a reference number of spatial layers for the UE 102(such as a maximum number of spatial layers configured for the UE 102for the component carrier and/or other parameter/value); a referenceamount of reference signal overhead; a reference modulation order and/orcoding rate (such as a maximum spectral efficiency schedulable and/orpossible for the UE 102 for that component carrier and/or otherparameter/value); and/or other.

In a non-limiting example, if a UE 102 is configured with one or moreBWPs, the reference number of resource blocks may be determined from theBWP containing the largest number of resource blocks. In someembodiments, the reference TBS_(LBRM) for a given component carrier canbe derived based on the largest BWP configured for the UE 102.

In some embodiments, the reference number of resource blocks can bedifferently determined for DL and UL LBRM respectively. In someembodiments, LBRM may be used to minimize demands on decoder throughputand reduce decoder latency, and the reference number of resource blockscan be identified considering the dimensioning of the decoders at the UE102 and gNB 105 for DL and UL respectively. Accordingly, for DL, thereference number of resource blocks can correspond to the largest BWsupported by the UE 102 as indicated for the carrier or via band/bandcombination signaling. On the other hand, for UL, the reference numberof resource blocks can correspond to the BW of the largest BWP withwhich the UE 102 is configured in the UL.

In some embodiments, based on UE capability, the network may be able toindicate parameters that are used to derive a reference TBS_(LBRM) orexplicitly indicate the TBS_(LBRM). The TBS_(LBRM) could be defined interms of a formula such as the following (with some adjustment orquantization from TBS_(est) to TBS_(LBRM)).

TBS _(est)=(Q _(m) ×R)x N _(RE) ×N _(L)

In some embodiments, Q_(m) can be a maximum modulation order configuredfor the UE 102 (such as Qm=8 if 256-QAM is enabled; Qm=1024, if 1024 QAMis enabled; and/or other). In some embodiments, R can be a maximum coderate supported at the maximum modulation order (such as R=8/9, or 15/16or 31/32, 0.935 or 0.95 and/or other value). In some embodiments, thevalue of N_(RE) can be N_(RB)*Z, wherein N_(RB) can be a componentcarrier bandwidth or maximum BWP (such as N_(RB)=275 or 100 and/or othervalue) with which the UE 102 is configured or a maximum BW supported bythe UE 102 as indicated for the carrier or via band/band combinationsignaling. In some embodiments, the value of Z can be 14×12−1−1=144 REs(excluding 1 control, and 1 DMRS). In some embodiments, N_(L) can be themaximum number of layers configured for the UE 102. For instance, N_(L)can be 2 or 4 or 8, or it can be modulation dependent. For instance,N_(L)=4 if Qm=8 or N_(L)=2 if Qm=10. Embodiments are not limited to theexamples given above, to the values given above or to the formula givenabove. Other values, other formulas and/or similar formulas may be used,in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, based on UE capability, the network may indicate aset of reference parameters to determine the LBRM. The following arenon-limiting examples of reference parameters: a transport block sizeTBS_(LBRM); a number of code blocks (C_(LBRM)); a maximum code blocksize (K_(CB-LBRM)) (from which the reference transport block size may becalculated as C_(LBRM)*K_(CB-LBRM); and/or other).

In some embodiments, LBRM may be applied, given a TBS_(LBRM). In someembodiments, for a base graph BG of dimension mb×nb (corresponding tok_(b) systematic part) with shift sizes given by a set of values, with amaximum code block size given by maxCBS_(BG) bits, if the number of codeblocks for a TBS of X is given by C and code block size given by K=kb×Z(lift or shift size is given by Z), then the total number of coded bitsin the circular buffer per code block may be given by K/R_(BG). In someembodiments, in NR, for base graph 1, R_(BG) can be ⅓.

In some embodiments, given the LBRM rate of R_(LBRM) and LBRM transportblock size of TBS_(LBRM), if the total number of coded bits in theLBRM-applied circular for TBS X is limited by TBS_(LBRM)/R_(LBRM), andapplying this limit to per code block, the LBRM per code block C can begiven by min (K/R_(BG), TBS_(LBRM)/(R_(LBRM)*C)). In case either inputto the minimum function is not an integer, a floor, ceiling, roundingand/or other operation may be used to obtain an integer. In someembodiments, such operation(s) may be applied in techniques and/ormethods described herein, although corresponding descriptions herein maynot necessarily indicate usage of the operation.

In a non-limiting example given below, a floor operation is used. Insome embodiments, all code blocks may have a same circular buffer value.In some embodiments, the following formula, a similar formula and/orother formula may be used.

${CircBufferSize}_{perCodeBlock} = {\min\left( {\frac{K}{R_{BG}},\left\lfloor \frac{{TBS}_{LBRM}}{R_{LBRM} \cdot C} \right\rfloor} \right)}$

In some embodiments, in the above, TBS_(LBRM) may be replaced withC_(LBRM)*K_(CB-LBRM) if the LBRM is applied based on the LBRM codeblocks and code block size notation. In a non-limiting example, R_(BG)is ⅓ for BG1, and ⅕ or lower for BG2 depending on the value for k_(b)used for block size K. In some embodiments, the CircBufferSize mayfurther be adjusted to align with the LDPC base graph shift sizedimension Z. In a non-limiting example, the code block size K may begiven by k_(b)*Z. In some embodiments, the following formula, a similarformula and/or other formula may be used.

${CircBufferSize}_{perCodeBlock} = {Z \cdot {\min\left( {\frac{k_{b}}{R_{BG}},\left\lfloor \frac{{TBS}_{LBRM}}{Z \cdot R_{LBRM} \cdot C} \right\rfloor} \right)}}$

In some embodiments, an effective number of columns (each column oflength Z) in the circular buffer after LBRM is applied may be given bythe formula below, a similar formula and/or other formula.

$n_{b,{LBRM}} = {\min\left( {\frac{k_{b}}{R_{BG}},\left\lfloor \frac{{TBS}_{LBRM}}{Z \cdot R_{LBRM} \cdot C} \right\rfloor} \right)}$

In some embodiments, when LBRM is not applied, the redundancy versionsfor HARQ RVs {0,1,2,3} at {0,17,33,56}×Z for BG1 and {0,13,25,43}×Z forBG2, and when LBRM is applied, they may be scaled and still aligned tothe shift size Z. In some embodiments, RV1 may be given by the formulabelow, a similar formula and/or other formula.

${{RV}1} = {{\left\lfloor {\left( \frac{17}{66 \cdot Z} \right) \cdot {\min\left( {\frac{K}{R_{BG}},\left\lfloor \frac{{TBS}_{LBRM}}{R_{LBRM} \cdot C} \right\rfloor} \right)}} \right\rfloor \cdot Z}{or}}$$\left\lceil {\left( \frac{17}{66 \cdot Z} \right) \cdot {\min\left( {\frac{K}{R_{BG}},\left\lfloor \frac{{TBS}_{LBRM}}{R_{LBRM} \cdot C} \right\rfloor} \right)}} \right\rceil \cdot Z$

In some embodiments, in the above, either a floor or ceiling operationmay be used. In some embodiments, other RVs may be similarly scaled.Alternatively, it may be expressed in terms of the effective number ofcolumns to start at the value below, a similar value and/or other value.

${\left\lfloor \frac{17 \cdot n_{b,{LBRM}}}{66} \right\rfloor \cdot Z}{or}{\left\lceil \frac{17 \cdot n_{b,{LBRM}}}{66} \right\rceil \cdot Z}$

In some embodiments, in the above, either a floor or ceiling operationmay be used. In some embodiments, other RVs may be similarly scaled.

In some embodiments, application of LBRM may be performed so as to avoidany ambiguity issues between the transmitter and receiver, although thescope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some cases, LBRMmay not necessarily be applied. Such cases may include, but are notlimited to: an initial access phase, wherein the network may not befully aware of UE capability with respect to a component carrier; casesin which the network is transmitting broadcast information that may needto be received by any UE 102 (which may include UEs 102 with differentcapabilities); and/or other case(s).

For instance, the LBRM may not necessarily be applied to common messagesscheduled via SI-RNTI, P-RNTI, RA-RNTI, and/or other. In someembodiments, such messages may have relatively smaller packet sizes, andmay not necessarily have stringent processing requirements that wouldneed reduction of LDPC decoding latency. For UE-specific messages, thenetwork may assume a reference minimum configuration that a UE 102 mayapply to packets scheduled on the common search space, which can bebased on the default BWP or the initial access BWP. For UE-specificmessages, the LBRM could be applied per transport block or per-HARQprocess, wherein a HARQ process may contain up to two transport blocks.

For uplink, the LBRM can be enabled using RRC signaling. In someembodiments, the UE 102 may not necessarily apply LBRM (for instance,the UE 102 may utilize full buffer rate-matching) until it is configuredto apply LBRM. Once this is enabled, the UE 102 may apply the LBRM basedon the configuration parameters which may be based on uplinkcapabilities of the UE 102 (which may be inferred or derived from UEsignaling), network configuration for uplink transmission, uplinkbandwidth parts, and/or other. In some embodiments, LBRM transport blocksizes may be different for uplink and downlink, although the scope ofembodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, a reference transport block size may also bederived from a peak data rate supported by the UE 102 for the componentcarrier. For instance, the reference transport block size may beinferred from the band/band combination signalling, and using areference time duration. For example, if the UE 102 is capable ofsupporting 2 Gbps based on its band/band combination signalling for acarrier, then the maximum TBS could be determined based on the referencetime duration, such as a slot duration (which is 14 OFDM symbols for agiven numerology) and/or other. For example, with 30 kHz SCS, the slotduration is 0.5 ms, which when combined with 2 Gbps yields2*1e9*0.5*1e-3=1 million bits of reference TBS for LRBM. If theband/band combination indicates the data rate is based on a maximum oftwo codewords, then the LBRM per transport block could be based onreference TBS that is 50% of 1 million bits (that is, 500,000).

In some embodiments, a reference LBRM TBS can be defined for a limitedgranularity such as a limited set of resource allocations, (such as {25,50, 100, 200, 275} PRBs and/or other). Then a UE 102 may determine thereference LBRM TBS by comparing its BWP or CC or configured maximum BWPand selecting the nearest or next highest resource allocation as itsreference. For example, if a configured maximum BWP for the UE 102 is128 PRBs, then the UE 102 may select the 100 PRBs or 200 PRBs as thevalue for determining the reference TBS for LBRM.

In some embodiments, there may be a minimum value of TBS below whichLBRM may not be applied for uplink or for downlink. The referenceminimum value of TBS can be determined based on a limited set ofresource allocations (such as {25, 50, 100, 200, 275} PRBs and/orother). Then a UE 102 may determine the reference minimum LBRM TBS byselecting the 25 PRBs as the value for determining the reference minimumTBS for LBRM. In some embodiments, there may also be an assumption onDMRS, number of spatial layers, and/or other, and a potential adjustmentmay be made based on LDPC shift size and base graph to obtain anestimate of this.

In some embodiments, for a given link, the LBRM may be applied onmessages scheduled via specific DCI formats and/or messages scheduledvia specific search spaces.

Non-limiting example flow charts 1100, 1120, 1140, 1160 are shown inFIG. 11 . Another non-limiting example flow chart 1200 is shown in FIG.12 . In some embodiments, the UE 102 may perform some or all operationsof one or more of the flow charts 1100, 1120, 1140, 1160 and/or 1200. Insome embodiments, the UE 102 may perform one or more operations that maybe the same as one or more operations shown in FIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12 .In some embodiments, the UE 102 may perform one or more operations thatmay be similar to one or more operations shown in FIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may perform one or more operationsthat may be reciprocal to one or more operations shown in FIG. 11 and/orFIG. 12 . In some embodiments, the gNB 105 may perform some or alloperations of one or more of the flow charts 1100, 1120, 1140, 1160and/or 1200. In some embodiments, the gNB 105 may perform one or moreoperations that may be the same as one or more operations shown in FIG.11 and/or FIG. 12 . In some embodiments, the gNB 105 may perform one ormore operations that may be similar to one or more operations shown inFIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12 . In some embodiments, the gNB 105 may performone or more operations that may be reciprocal to one or more operationsshown in FIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12 . Some embodiments may not necessarilyinclude all operations shown in FIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12 . Embodiments arenot limited to the chronological order shown in FIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12 .In some embodiments, the UE 102 and/or gNB 105 may perform one or moreoperations not shown in FIG. 11 and/or FIG. 12 .

In some embodiments, a method for transmission of a packet to a device(such as a UE 102 and/or other device) may be performed by the gNB 105.One or more of the following operations may be performed. The gNB 105may acquire device reception capability information. The gNB 105 maydetermine parameters for applying a limited buffer rate-matching for thepacket based on the device capability information. The gNB 105 mayencode the packet using a coding scheme to obtain an encoded packet;apply limited buffer rate-matching to the encoded packet. The gNB 105may transmit the LBRM-applied encoded packet; and/or other operation(s).In some embodiments, a parameter for applying a limited bufferrate-matching may include a reference transport block size determinedbased on maximum configured bandwidth part for reception at the device.In some embodiments, the reference transport block size may be furtherdetermined based on one or more of: a reference number of spatiallayers; reference pilot overhead; reference resource allocation; areference subcarrier spacing; and/or other. Some embodiments may notnecessarily include all of the above operations. Some embodiments mayinclude one or more additional operations. Embodiments are not limitedto the chronological order given above.

In some embodiments, a method for reception of a packet from a device(such as a UE 102 and/or other device) may be performed by the gNB 105.One or more of the following operations may be performed. The gNB 105may acquire device transmitter capability information. The gNB 105 maydetermine parameters for applying a type of rate-matching for the packetat the device transmitter. The gNB 105 may transmit configurationinformation including information related to application of a type ofrate-matching for encoding a packet at the device. In some embodiments,the configuration information may include, for limited bufferrate-matching, a reference transport block size determined based on amaximum configured bandwidth part for transmission from the device. ThegNB 105 may receive the rate-matched encoded packet from the device;and/or other operation(s). In some embodiments, the reference transportblock size may be further determined based on one or more of: areference number of spatial layers, reference pilot overhead, referenceresource allocation, a reference subcarrier spacing and/or other. Insome embodiments, the type of rate-matching may be full bufferrate-matching or limited buffer rate-matching. In some embodiments, thegNB 105 may decode the received rate-matched encoded packet, and maytransmit a retransmission request based on the result of decoding. Someembodiments may not necessarily include all of the above operations.Some embodiments may include one or more additional operations.Embodiments are not limited to the chronological order given above.

In some embodiments, a method for reception of a packet from a device(such as a gNB 105 and/or other device) may be performed by the UE 102.One or more of the following operations may be performed. The UE 102 maytransmit device reception capability information. The UE 102 may acquireparameters related to a limited buffer rate-matching applied for thepacket. The UE 102 may receive an LBRM-applied encoded packet. In someembodiments, the packet may be encoded based on a coding scheme. In someembodiments, a parameter for applying a limited buffer rate-matching mayinclude a reference transport block size determined based on maximumconfigured bandwidth part for reception at the device. In someembodiments, the reference transport block size may be furtherdetermined based on one or more of: a reference number of spatiallayers, reference pilot overhead, reference resource allocation, areference subcarrier spacing and/or other. In some embodiments, the UE102 may decode the received LBRM-applied encoded packet. In someembodiments, the UE 102 may transmit feedback based on the result ofdecoding. Some embodiments may not necessarily include all of the aboveoperations. Some embodiments may include one or more additionaloperations. Embodiments are not limited to the chronological order givenabove.

In some embodiments, a method for transmission of a packet to a device(such as a gNB 105 and/or other device) may be performed by the UE 102.One or more of the following operations may be performed. The UE 102 maytransmit device transmitter capability information. The UE 102 mayreceive configuration information, which may include one or more of:information related to application of a type of rate-matching forencoding the packet at the device; configuration information for limitedbuffer rate-matching; a reference transport block size (which may bedetermined based on a maximum configured bandwidth part for transmissionfrom the device and/or other, in some embodiments); and/or otherinformation. The UE 102 may encode a packet using a coding scheme toobtain an encoded packet. The UE 102 may apply limited bufferrate-matching to the encoded packet based on configuration information.The UE 102 may transmit the LBRM-applied encoded packet. In someembodiments, the reference transport block size may be furtherdetermined based on one or more of: a reference number of spatiallayers, reference pilot overhead, reference resource allocation, areference subcarrier spacing and/or other. In some embodiments, the typeof rate-matching may be full buffer rate-matching or limited bufferrate-matching. Some embodiments may not necessarily include all of theabove operations. Some embodiments may include one or more additionaloperations. Embodiments are not limited to the chronological order givenabove.

In some embodiments, next generation wireless communication system, 5G,or new radio (NR) may be used. In some embodiments, NR may provide aunified network/system that targets to meet vastly different andsometime conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such diversemulti-dimensional requirements may be driven by different services andapplications. In general, NR may evolve based on 3GPP LTE-Advanced withadditional potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs).

In some cases, the NR use case families, eMBB and ultra-reliable and lowlatency communications (URLCC) may have very different requirements interms of user plane latency, required coverage levels and/or otherfactor(s). In some cases, key requirements for URLLC may relate toU-plane latency and reliability. In a non-limiting example, for URLLC,the target for user plane latency may be 0.5 ms for UL, and 0.5 ms forDL. In another non-limiting example, a target for reliability may be1×10⁻⁵ within lms. Embodiments are not limited to the example valuesgiven above.

In some cases, a challenge for NR design may be to enable efficientmultiplexing of the eMBB and URLLC services in the same spectrum. Thereason is that both services may require large bandwidth (i.e. tens ofMHz) but may have different latency requirements that limitapplicability of simple frequency domain multiplexing and may lead tothe necessity of time domain multiplexing approaches. In someembodiments, semi-static partitioning of resources in time domain may beused by allocating certain resources for URLLC and eMBB. However, thistechnique may suffer from low efficiency and peak data rate losses ofboth eMBB and URLLC services, in some cases. Therefore, dynamicmultiplexing approaches may be desired for efficient operation of bothURLLC and eMBB services in one spectrum.

In some embodiments, to enable dynamic multiplexing, URLLC transmissionmay preempt an ongoing eMBB transmission. For instance, the resourceelements already scheduled for eMBB may be punctured. To help the UE 102to perform proper soft combining of the corrupted initial transmissionand the retransmission due to puncturing of eMBB data, the UE 102 may beinformed by the preempted resource via Preemption Indication (PI). InFIG. 13 , a non-limiting example of dynamic multiplexing of eMBB andURLLC is shown, wherein preempted resource is used for the transmissionof control and/or data channel for URLLC application.

In some embodiments, including but not limited to cases in which 3GPP,NR, and/or 5G is used, the following may be applicable. In someembodiments, a fixed payload size (excluding CRC and potential reservedbits) of the group-common DCI carrying the downlink pre-emptionindication (PI), in the format of a bitmap is used to indicate preemptedresources within the semi-statically configured DL reference resource.The bitmap indicates for one or more frequency domain parts (N>=1)and/or one or more time domain parts (M>=1). There may not necessarilybe RRC configuration involved in determining the frequency ortime-domain parts. The following combinations are supported andpredefined {M, N}={14, 1}, {7, 2}. A combination of {M,N} from this setof possible {M,N} is indicated 1 bit by RRC configuration for a UE 102.

In some embodiments, the number of partitions may be derived from thetypical number of symbols in a slot since NR supports 14 OFDM symbols ina slot in case of normal CP for all subcarrier spacings. However, in 60kHz SCS, there may be an extended CP format defined which has 48 symbolsper millisecond, i.e. 12 symbols per slot. Therefore, methods to enableECP case may be used. Moreover, how these bits in the bitmap relate to areference DL resource also may be clarified.

In some embodiments, techniques may be used to partition reference DLresource and to map the partitions to the indicated bitmap. One or moreof the following may be used: partitioning of the reference DL resourceonto time-frequency partitions for arbitrary number of symbols; mappingof bitmap bits to partitions; technique(s) to handle extended CP cases;and/or other.

In some embodiments, the following combinations of number of timepartitions M and frequency partitions N may be used: {M, N}={14, 1}; and{M, N}={7, 2}. Embodiments are not limited to usage of these numbers, assome or all techniques, operations and/or methods described herein maybe used when other values of M and N are used, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the number of partitions may be derived from thetypical number of symbols in a slot since NR supports 14 OFDM symbols ina slot in case of normal CP for all subcarrier spacings. However, in 60kHz SCS, there is an extended CP format defined which has 48 symbols permillisecond, i.e. 12 symbols per slot. Therefore, methods to enable ECPcase may be used. Moreover, how these bits in the bitmap relate to areference DL resource also may be clarified.

In some embodiments, a timing relation between CORESET for PI DCImonitoring and RDR may be used. In some embodiments, the reference DLresource duration may be equal to a monitoring periodicity (which may bereferred to herein as “P” symbols) while the minimum monitoringperiodicity for PI may be one slot. In this case, the exact position ofRDR relative to instance of PI DCI reception (i.e. PI DCI CORESEToccasion) may not necessarily be clearly defined.

In some embodiments, the reference DL resource may start at the startingsymbol of PI DCI CORESET and may end before (including but not limitedto right before) the starting symbol of the next PI DCI CORESEToccasion. A non-limiting example 1400 of this is illustrated in FIG. 14. Such an approach may be applicable for cases of slot-level monitoringperiodicity and PI DCI CORESET configured in the beginning of the slot.

In some embodiments, the RDR may start after (including but not limitedto right after) the last symbol of PI DCI CORESET and may end at thelast symbol of the next PI DCI CORESET occasion. A non-limiting example1450 of this is illustrated in FIG. 14 . Such an option may beapplicable in cases in which PI DCI CORESET is configured in the end ofthe slot.

In some embodiments, since both options (illustrated in FIG. 14 ) may bevalid in different cases, a potentially universal solution is to have aconfigurable offset between start/end of PI DCI CORESET and thestart/end of the reference DL resource. This offset may be configuredsemi-statically by RRC signaling since the monitoring configuration isalso semi-static.

In some embodiments, if the slot-level monitoring periodicity is deemedsufficient for PI DCI, then the RDR may be derived as the slots betweentwo PI DCI monitoring occasions. Furthermore, the RDR could be definedto span from end of the previous PI DCI CORESET (not including theCORESET symbols) to the start of the current PI DCI CORESET (again, notincluding the CORESET symbols). That is, the RDR may not necessarilyinclude the symbols corresponding to the CORESET in which the UE 102monitors for the PI DCI. This could be helpful at least for the M=14case, since if the symbols corresponding to CORESET are pre-empted, thenlikely the PI DCI itself is also affected. The benefit is in terms ofsmaller granularity of the time domain indication using M bits.

However, for M=7 case, preemption may happen in the RDR corresponding tothe other frequency partition without impacting the PI DCI. Thus, as analternative to the option of excluding the PI DCI CORESET from the RDR,the UE 102 may assume that only the PI DCI is valid even if thecorresponding symbols are indicated as being preempted by the same PIDCI. This can address use cases in which the actual preemption is lessthan the entire active DL BWP and excludes at least one candidate in thecorresponding CORESET to transmit the PI DCI, but when M=14 isconfigured. This UE assumption can be limited to only the PI DCI orcould be extended to all DCIs that the UE 102 detects within symbolsindicated as being preempted.

It should be noted that in some protocols (including but not limited to5G, NR, 3GPP, 3GPP LTE and/or other), reference DL resource may containUE BWP. However, in case of BWP adaptation in which the UE 102 needs toswitch BWPs within PI monitoring periodicity, certain UE behavior mayneed to be defined. In one option, in case of BWP adaptation, the UE 102may ignore PI corresponding to the time when it was in a different BWP.Alternatively, given that preempted resource mainly targets for URLLCapplication where wide frequency resource is typically used in order tomeet reliability requirement, in case of BWP adaptation, the UE 102 mayassume activated BWP (before or after BWP adaptation) is within thefrequency region of reference DL resource. In other words, frequencyregion of reference DL resource for pre-emption indication is theactivated DL BWP regardless of BWP adaptation. Therefore, the UE 102does not take any PI into account for symbols unless the UE 102 isscheduled with PDSCH for these symbols in the same BWP as the one inwhich it monitors the PI DCI.

In some embodiments, procedures to interpret the bitmap to identify thepreempted parts within the reference DL resource may be used. someprotocols (including but not limited to 5G, NR, 3GPP, 3GPP LTE and/orother), for the reference DL resource, its duration may be equal to thePI monitoring periodicity and the frequency span may be equal to theactive UE downlink bandwidth part. In the time domain, semi-staticallyconfigured UL resources may be excluded from the reference DL resource.Given that the duration of UL part is flexibly configurable, the numberof symbols within the configured periodicity may not necessarily be amultiple of 7 or 14. In such cases, methods to partition the referenceDL resource onto M parts for arbitrary number of symbols may be used.

In some protocols (including but not limited to 5G, NR, 3GPP, 3GPP LTEand/or other), a fixed bit-field size indicating a bitmap of preemptedpartitions within a reference DL resource may lead to an assumption thatthe DCI for PI contains 14 bit for the bitmap which indicates puncturedtime-frequency partitions. In some embodiments, indexing of bits withinthe bitmap may be used. In some embodiments, the bits in the bitmap maybe indexed starting from Most Significant Bit (MSB). In such cases,index ‘0’ may correspond to MSB and index ‘13’ may correspond to LeastSignificant Bit (LSB) as it is shown in 1500 in FIG. 15 . As an option,the bitmap may be indexed starting from LSB. In such cases, index ‘0’may correspond to LSB and index ‘13’ may correspond to MSB.

Assuming the bits in the bitmap are indexed according to one of theembodiments described above, the corresponding mapping of bitmap bits totime-frequency partitions of the reference DL resource may be performed.First, the case of time only configuration is considered, wherein {M,N}={14, 1} (that is, 14 partitions in time with no granularity infrequency). A whole active DL BWP may be assumed to be indicated withinthe time partition. For further discussion, it may be assumed that thereference DL resource (RDR) contains ‘P’ symbols of current numerologyassociated with the active DL BWP. Then, one or more of the followingequations, similar equations and/or other equations may be used tocalculate the indexes of symbols which correspond to each partitions maybe used. In the can be exploited. In the following, b_(i) is an index ofa bit in the bitmap (wherein i=0, 1, . . . , M−1), and s_(j) is an indexof a symbol in the reference DL resource (wherein j=0, 1, . . . , P−1).In some embodiments, partitioning of resources may be done following aprinciple that partitions have disjoint resources (that is, nopartitions contain resources of other partition).

In some embodiments, if P<M, the i-th bit in the bitmap may correspondto the i-th symbol in RDR (wherein i=0, 1, . . . , P−1). That is, only Pbits from the bitmap may be used in such cases. A non-limiting example1520 is shown in FIG. 15 . The remaining M−P bits in the bitmap may beunused and may be set to default value (such as ‘0’). This may beconsidered a truncated bitmap, in some embodiments.

As an option when P<M, the shorter bitmap may be repeated until the endof RDR. An example 1540 is illustrated in FIG. 15 . Although there is noadditional information carried by the bitmap, this option may be one ofalternatives. This may be considered a repeated indication, in someembodiments.

In some embodiments, if P≥M, P symbols of RDR may be distributed over Mbits of the bitmap as much uniform as possible. This principle may bedescribed by the following equations. In the following, l₀=floor (P/M)is a first length of a time partition, l₁=floor (P/M)+1 is a secondlength of a time partition, a₀ is a number of partitions of the firstlength l₀, a₁ is a number of partitions of the second length l₁ (may be0 if P modulo M=0), and M=a₀+a₁, (that is, the overall number ofpartitions is equal to the time domain length of the bitmap M). From theabove conditions, a₀=M−(P modulo M), and a₁=P modulo M. Therefore, eachi-th bit b_(i) in the bitmap may correspond to a partition of length l₀or l₁ symbols. If P is an integer multiple of M (that is, P mod M=0),then there is no partitions of second length l₁ (that is, a₁=0). Thepartitions of different lengths l₀ and l₁ can be distributed over thereference DL resource by one or more of the following methods and/orother methods.

In some embodiments, partitions of length l₀ may be placed contiguouslyin the beginning of RDR and partitions of length l₁ may be placedcontiguously in the end of RDR. A non-limiting example 1560 of this isillustrated in FIG. 15 . The example 1560 may illustrate a contiguousdistribution of partition lengths in reference DL resource, in someembodiments.

In some embodiments, partitions of length l₁ may be placed contiguouslyin the beginning of RDR and partitions of length l₀ may be placedcontiguously in the end of RDR. A non-limiting example 1580 of this isillustrated in FIG. 15 . The example 1580 may illustrate a contiguousdistribution of partition lengths in reference DL resource, in someembodiments.

In some embodiments, partitions of both lengths may be uniformlydistributed within the whole RDR. This may be needed to distributepartitions with different resolution within the reference DL resource.One example of distributed l₁ and l₀ is shown in the non-limitingexample 1600 in FIG. 16 , with M=14. In 1600, each row corresponds tothe bitmap of length M. Different rows correspond to different sizes ofreference DL region (wherein different number of partitions of length l₁is assumed from a₁=0 to M−1). Furthermore, positions of l₁-lengthpartitions are colored following the principle of quasi-uniformdistribution of l₀ and l₁ within the RDR. Note, similar distributionsmay be achieved for the case of M=7 as shown in 1650 in FIG. 16 .

Additionally, the illustrated distribution of partitions is captured inthe table below. The table may illustrate positions of partitions withsecond length I₁ within the reference DL resource for different valuesof a₁, in some embodiments.

a₁ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Positions 13 6 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ofl₁- 13 8 6 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 length 13 9 7 6 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 partitions 1310 8 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 13 10 9 8 7 6 6 5 5 13 11 9 8 8 7 6 6 13 11 10 9 8 87 13 11 10 9 9 8 13 12 11 10 9 13 12 11 10 13 12 11 13 12 13

Alternatively, a hybrid option of grouping of same length partitions anddistribution of them across the reference DL resource may be achieved asillustrated in FIG. 17 for M=14 (1700) and M=7 (1750). In some cases,benefits of such an approach may include nested structure and/or commonmechanism for M=14 and M=7. The table below may illustrate positions ofpartitions with second length I₁ within the reference DL resource fordifferent values of a₁, in some embodiments.

a₁ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Positions 13 6 6 5 5 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 ofl₁- 13 12 6 6 5 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 length 13 12 9 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 partitions13 12 9 8 6 6 5 5 4 4 13 12 9 8 8 6 6 5 5 13 12 9 9 8 8 6 6 13 12 11 9 98 7 13 12 11 10 9 8 13 12 11 10 9 13 12 11 10 13 12 11 13 12 13

As a further alternative option, the bitmap M may be assumed repeatedover P symbols. That is, each bit in the bitmap may correspond to allsymbols i=j+M·m, wherein j is a bit index in the bitmap and m=0, . . . ,ceil(P/M)−1 is the index of bitmap repetition over RDR.

In another approach to distribute partitions of different length, acondition whether any partition spans a slot boundary may be utilized.For example, a consecutive partitioning as in one or more of the aboveoptions may be assumed as a starting point. Then, if there is anypartition which spans through a slot boundary then the partition mappingmay be cyclically shifted or swapped until there is no any partitionspanning slot boundary. That is, the partition crossing slot boundary orits neighboring partition may be swapped with the partition of anotherlength. In case there is frequency domain indication granularityconfigured, (such as {M, N}={7, 2} and/or other), mechanisms topartition in frequency and also how to map time-frequency partitions tothe signaled bitmap may be used, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, including but not limited to cases in which 3GPP,NR, and/or 5G is used, the following may be applicable. In some cases,there may be at most 2 partitions. In this case, different approaches ofmapping the time-frequency partitions to the bitmap may be used. In someembodiments, the mapping may be time-first. That is, indexes of timepartitions may be increasing with the increase of bit index in thebitmap. After reaching the last time partition within a particularfrequency, the time index is reset and the frequency index isincremented. This approach is illustrated in 1850 in FIG. 18 . In someembodiments, the mapping may be frequency-first. That is, indexes offrequency partitions may be increasing with the increase of bit index inthe bitmap and reset every two bits with increasing time domain index. Anon-limiting example 1800 is illustrated in FIG. 18 . In some cases, thefrequency-first approach may be more suitable for cases when P<M and thebitmap may need to be truncated. When truncated, consecutive bits may bedropped if needed.

In some embodiments, techniques to divide the frequency bandwidth intotwo parts for the case of {M, N}={7, 2} may be used. In someembodiments, the total number of PRBs in the active DL bandwidth partmay be divided equally. That is, assuming there are B PRBs of a givennumerology associated with particular BWP, the first frequency partitionmay comprise floor (B/2) PRBs, and the second partition may compriseremaining [B−floor (B/2)] PRBs. Alternatively, the first partition maycomprise ceil (B/2) PRBs, and the second partition may compriseremaining [B−ceil (B/2)] PRBs.

In some embodiments, an extended cyclic prefix may be used. In someembodiments, including but not limited to cases in which 3GPP, NR,and/or 5G is used, the following may be applicable. Values for M=[7, 14]may fit to slot duration of 14 symbols, which is the case for normal CP.However, for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing there may be an extended CPoption available for configuration. There may be 12 extended CP OFDMsymbols comprising a slot. In some embodiments, this case may be handledby the mechanisms described above for P M. For example, if P=12 andM=14, the bitmap may be truncated. That is, 2 bits may be consideredunused. In another example, if P=12 and M=7, the mechanism ofpartitioning into unequal parts may be used as in other embodimentsand/or cases described herein.

In some embodiments, another set of {M, N} which correspond to ECP casemay be used. The set may be used in dynamic indication and may beconfigured via RRC by 1 bit field. Non-limiting examples include {M,N}={12, 1}, and {M, N}={6, 2}. In some embodiments, the UE 102 mayidentify which particular set to use depending on the configured CP fora given bandwidth part and the RRC signaled index of the set among thetwo specified.

In some embodiments, a system and/or method of spectrum resourcespartitioning for DL preemption indication in wireless communication fora fifth generation (5G) or new radio (NR) system may be used. In someembodiments, the gNB 105 may configure time and frequency referenceresource region for application of pre-emption indication. In someembodiments, the gNB 105 may indicate time and frequency resource by apre-emption indication. In some embodiments, the gNB 105 may transmitthe pre-emption indication using a group common downlink controlinformation (DCI). In some embodiments, the reference DL resource maystart at the starting symbol of PI DCI CORESET and may end right beforethe starting symbol of the next PI DCI CORESET occasion. In someembodiments, the reference DL resource may always start at the startingsymbol of PI DCI CORESET and may end right before the starting symbol ofthe next PI DCI CORESET occasion. In some embodiments, the reference DLresource may start right after the last symbol of PI DCI CORESET and mayend at the last symbol of the next PI DCI CORESET occasion. In someembodiments, the start/end of PI DCI CORESET and the start/end of thereference DL resource may be offset to each other. In some embodiments,a value of the offset may be configured semi-statically by RRCsignaling. In some embodiments, the preempted time-frequency resourceindication may be a bitmap of length L in a DCI carrying preemptionindication. In some embodiments, L=M*N, wherein M is a number of timepartitions and N is a number of frequency partitions.

In some embodiments, bits in the bitmap may be indexed starting fromMost Significant Bit (MSB). In some embodiments, index ‘0’ maycorrespond to MSB and index ‘L−1’ may correspond to Least SignificantBit (LSB). In some embodiments, the bits in the bitmap may be indexedstarting from LSB. In some embodiments, index ‘0’ may correspond to LSBand index ‘L−1’ may correspond to MSB.

In some embodiments, the reference DL resource may comprise P symbols ofa given numerology. In some embodiments, if P is smaller than M and thei-th bit in the bitmap corresponds to i-th symbol in the reference DLresource (wherein i=0, 1, . . . , P−1, and only P bits from the bitmapare used), remaining M−P bits in the bitmap may be unused and may be setto a default value (such as ‘0’ and/or other). In some embodiments, abitmap of length P may be repeated to compose an M-length bitmap.

In some embodiments, if P is equal to or larger than M, then P symbolsof the reference DL resource may be distributed over M bits of thebitmap as much uniform as possible according to the following equations.The parameter l₀=floor (P/M) is a first length of a time partition; theparameter l₁=floor (P/M)+1 is a second length of a time partition; theparameter a₀ is a number of partitions of the first length l₀; theparameter a₁ is a number of partitions of the second length l₁ (may be 0if P modulo M=0); the parameter M=a₀+a₁ is an overall number ofpartitions, and may be equal to the time domain length of the bitmap M.From the above conditions, one or more of the following may be used:a₀=M−(P modulo M); a₁=P modulo M.

In some embodiments, each i-th bit b_(i) in the bitmap may correspond toa partition of length l₀ or l₁ symbols. In some embodiments, partitionsof length l₀ may be placed contiguously in the beginning of thereference DL resource and partitions of length l₁ may be placedcontiguously in the end of reference DL resource.

In some embodiments, partitions of length 11 may be placed contiguouslyin the beginning of the reference DL resource and partitions of lengthl₀ may be placed contiguously in the end of reference DL resource. Insome embodiments, partitions of both lengths may be uniformlydistributed within the whole reference DL resource.

In some embodiments, the bitmap M may be repeated over P symbols. Thatis, each bit in the bitmap may correspond to all symbols i=j+M·m,wherein j is a bit index in the bitmap, wherein m=0, . . . , ceil(P/M)−1is an index of bitmap repetition over the reference DL resource.

In some embodiments, in cases in which a number of frequency domainpartitions N is larger than 1, then the mapping of time-frequencypartitions to the bitmap may be time-first. That is, indexes of timepartitions may be increasing with the increase of bit index in thebitmap. After reaching the last time partition within particularfrequency, the time index may be reset and the frequency index may beincremented.

In some embodiments, in cases in which the number of frequency domainpartitions N is larger than 1, then the mapping may be frequency-first.That is, indexes of frequency partitions may be increasing with theincrease of bit index in the bitmap and may be reset every two bits withincreasing time domain index.

In some embodiments, in cases in which the bandwidth part in which PIDCI is monitored is configured with an extended CP, a new set of {M, N}(which may correspond to ECP case) may be introduced. A set to be usedin dynamic indication may be configured via RRC by 1 bit field. In someembodiments, one or more of the following sets may be used: {M, N}={12,1}; {M, N}={6, 2}; and/or other.

In some embodiments, including but not limited to embodiments in which3GPP, 3GPP LTE and/or NR protocols are used, sidelink carrieraggregation for V2V communication may be used. In some embodiments, asingle synchronization reference may be assumed for transmission acrossall sidelink component carriers (CCs). In some embodiments, techniquesmay be used to support V2V sidelink synchronization over multipleaggregated CCs.

In some embodiments, a sidelink V2V synchronization procedure maycomprise one or more of the following: allocation of sidelinksynchronization resources for SLSS transmission/reception acrossmultiple aggregated sidelink component carriers (CCs); TDM multiplexingof synchronization resources with other sidelink channels (such asPSCCH, PSSCH and/or other) and resources to avoid cross-carrier leakageand transmit power sharing between SLSS transmission and other sidelinktransmissions; techniques based on SLSS transmitter behavior to resolvepotential conflict of SLSS and PSCCH/PSSCH transmission across multipleCCs; usage of a synchronization source selection rule used to derivetiming for transmission and reception across aggregated CCs; usage of atie breaking rule to select the synchronization reference from the setof signals having the same priority of synchronization sources; and/orother.

In some cases, one or more of the techniques, operations and/or methodsdescribed herein may enable a reduction of the UE complexity and/orimproved synchronization performance for the case of sidelink carrieraggregation in application to LTE-V2V communication. Embodimentsdescribed herein are not limited to the LTE-V2V use case.

In some embodiments, different types of synchronization sources forGNSS, eNB and UE (SLSS transmission based on derived timing from GNSS,eNB, other UEs) may be used in sidelink synchronization on V2V carriers.Support of SLSS based synchronization may be up to UE capability, insome embodiments. The V2X capable UE 102 may be expected to support atleast GNSS and eNB 104 as a synchronization reference, in someembodiments.

In cases in which multiple sidelink component carriers are used,technique(s) for synchronization across sidelink component carriers maybe used. In some cases, synchronized and non-synchronized sidelinkcomponent carriers may exist. However, practical benefits of havingnon-synchronized component carriers may not be clear in some cases.Therefore, enhancements to support synchronized sidelink multi-carrieroperation may be used.

In some embodiments, for synchronized sidelink component carries, commontiming reference and/or synchronization source priority rules may beused across all aggregated sidelink CCs for sidelink transmission andreception. The common sync reference (e.g. GNSS, eNB, SLSS) may be usedto provide synchronization in time and frequency for all aggregated CCs.In general, common DFN offset may be defined across multiple componentcarriers. This may be sufficient to provide all necessary functionalityand flexibility in terms of resource allocation in case of eNB and GNSSbased synchronization references, in some cases. In cases in which SLSSbased synchronization is used, one or more of the techniques, operationsand/or methods described herein may be used.

In some cases, including but not limited to cases in which multipleaggregated sidelink CCs are used, one or more of the following sidelinksynchronization signals (SLSS) resource configurations may be used. Insome embodiments (which may be referred to without limitation as “Option1”), SLSS transmission using a single carrier (such as an anchor carrieras illustrated in FIG. 19 and/or other). A non-limiting example 1900 ofoption 1 is shown in FIG. 19 . In some embodiments, multi-carriersynchronization using SLSS transmission using anchor carrier may beused. In some embodiments (which may be referred to without limitationas “Option 1a”), a system-wide anchor carrier may be used. From a systemperspective, the sidelink synchronization resources can be configured ina way that only one out of N aggregated CCs is used for SLSStransmission. In such cases, only one CC may need to be scanned by RX UE102 to detect SLSS and associated synchronization references. Given thatR15 UE 102 has multiple RX chains and one of the chains may be easilytuned to anchor CC, it can simply track SLSS synchronization sources andapply it for transmission/reception across multiple aggregated CCs. Thisdesign option may be aligned with R14 UE behavior, given that thepresence of synchronization resources is CC specific and may be enabledor disabled on each sidelink CC.

In some embodiments (which may be referred to without limitation as“Option 1b”), a UE-specific anchor carrier may be used. From single UEperspective, the sidelink synchronization resources can be configured onone out of N synchronous CCs at each UE 102. In this case, the UE 102may transmit SLSS using only one CC but may still need to scan SLSSreferences on multiple aggregated CCs. Given that R15 UE 102 hasmultiple RX chains, it can detect SLSS on multiple CCs and may selectone of them as a synchronization reference for transmission/receptionacross all aggregated CCs. The selection of synchronization referenceacross set of aggregated CCs may follow the R14 procedure forsynchronization source selection rules, although the scope ofembodiments is not limited in this respect. This rule can be extendedacross CCs so that the CC in which a source with the highest priority isdetected may be used as synchronization reference.

In some embodiments (which may be referred to without limitation as“Option 2”), SLSS transmission over multiple carriers may be used.Sidelink synchronization resources may be configured on M out of Nsynchronous CCs. In this case, the following sidelink synchronizationresource configurations may be used. In some embodiments (which may bereferred to without limitation as “Option 2a”), the configuration may bebased on usage of FDM of synchronization resources across aggregatedCCs. A non-limiting example 1920 of option 2a is shown in FIG. 19 .Sidelink synchronization resources may be allocated in the same subframeacross multiple CCs (i.e. aligned in time) as it is shown in FIG. 19 .In such cases, the UE 102 with limited TX capabilities (such as Kchains) may need to be pre-configured or autonomously select subset Kout of M component carriers for SLSS transmission. The UE 102 may notnecessarily be mandated to transmit SLSS on all K out of M componentcarriers, given that it may not use all K or M CCs for sidelinkcommunication. In this option, the UE 102 may need to select single SLSSsynchronization reference for transmission and reception across Mcomponent carriers. The potential drawbacks of this option are: mutualimpact of SLSS transmissions due to cross-carrier leakage among SLSStransmissions on different CCs; and shared TX power budget across CCs.

In some embodiments (which may be referred to without limitation as“Option 2b”), the configuration may be based on usage of FDM+TDM of syncresources across aggregated CCs. In Option 2b, synchronization resourceson M out of N component carriers may be distributed in time. This optioncan potentially enable UE 102 with limited TX capabilities to transmitSLSS on multiple CCs (w/o dropping SLSS transmission) by switching fromone CC to another. However, switching may cause receiver interruptionsand also conflict with data transmission across selected CCs. Inaddition, in this option, out-of-band emission (OOBE) from SLSStransmission may mask reception of PSCCH/PSSCH on other CCs and viceversa. A non-limiting example 1940 of option 2b is shown in FIG. 19 .

In some embodiments (which may be referred to without limitation as“Option 3”), synchronization resources corresponding to differentsynchronization references may be distributed across CCs. In thisoption, synchronization resources (for instance, sync resource 1, 2, 3)can be configured on different CCs (for instance, SLSS propagatingtiming from GNSS is transmitted on CC1 sync resources, SLSS propagatingtiming from eNB 104 is transmitted on CC2 sync resources, and/or otherarrangements). This option may be reasonable from the perspective ofsync source type differentiation. However, it may not necessarily bealigned with R14 sidelink synchronization procedure.

Considering Option 1 and Option 2a of synchronization signals resourceallocation, the same DFN Offset value and syncOffsetIndicator may beused on all CCs, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, one or more of the following modifications may beused: introduce anchor CC or aligned in time allocation ofsynchronization resources; use the common DFN offset andsyncOffsetIndicator parameter across multiple component carriers.

In some embodiments, in order to avoid cross-carrier leakage on a set ofaggregated CCs, the synchronization resource may be multiplexed in timewith other sidelink transmissions on aggregated component carriers. Anon-limiting example of this is shown in FIG. 20 . Usage of suchresource allocation may help to avoid conflict with parallel PSCCH/PSSCHdata transmission on other CCs and may be beneficial at least for UEs102 with limited TX capabilities. In some cases, FIG. 20 may illustrateTDM of sidelink sync resource with other sidelink channels acrossaggregated CCs.

In some embodiments, the following modification may be used: usage ofTDM multiplexing of SLSS and PSCCH/PSSCH resources to avoidcross-carrier leakage and TX power sharing.

In some embodiments, in case of limited UE TX capability, (such as casesin which the UE 102 cannot transmit on multiple carriers at the sametime) the UE 102 may need to switch its TX chain from one CC to anotherin order to transmit SLSS on configured CC. It may happen in a situationin which a TX chain of the UE 102 is tuned to another CC for PSCCH/PSSCHtransmission. Depending on switching time, the retuning of TX chain toSLSS carrier may be in conflict with PSCCH/PSSCH transmission on a givencarrier. In such cases, the UE 102 may use one of the following optionsused to resolve this conflict. The options presented below and shown inFIG. 21 (referred to as option 1, option 2 and option 3) should not beconfused with options/elements of same name or similar name describedelsewhere herein. In option 1, PSCCH/PSSCH transmission may beprioritized over SLSS transmission at other CCs. The UE 102 may beallowed to skip or temporally discontinue SLSS transmission on some CCif it has active TX process on another CC with or w/o SLLS resources.

In option 2, SLSS transmission may be prioritized over PSCCH/PSSCHtransmission at other CCs. The UE 102 may skip PSCCH/PSSCH transmissionopportunity if carrier switching to SLSS carrier could not beaccomplished in time. In this case, considering persistent nature ofPSSCH/PSCCH resource allocation, continuous packet drop potentiallycould happen. In order to handle this situation, the resourcereselection may be triggered to select other resources that do not haveTX and switching conflict and therefore avoid TX conflict acrossmultiple CCs at UE 102.

In option 3, PSCCH/PSSCH resource selection procedure may be modified,and information about SLSS resource allocation and carrier switchingtime may be used. According to some resource (re)selection procedure(s),including but not limited to those of 3GPP, 3GPP LTE and/or NR, theresources used for SLSS transmission may be excluded from resourcecandidates for PSCCH/PSSCH transmission. Considering the non-negligiblecarrier switching time (T_(switch)), the additional resources before andafter SLSS transmission subframes may also be excluded from the list ofresources available for PSCCH/PSSCH resource selection to allow UE 102to complete carrier switching on time and transmit PSCCH/PSSCH and SLSSsignals at other carrier(s) without TX conflict.

Non-limiting examples of the above options (option 1, option 2 andoption 3) are shown in FIG. 21 . In some cases, FIG. 21 may illustrateUE TX behavior options in case of cross-carrier SLSS and PSCCH/PSSCHtransmission.

In some embodiments, the following modification may be used: specifytransmitter behavior to address TX conflict of SLSS and PSCCH/PSSCHtransmission in case of sidelink carrier aggregation. The solution maycomprise one or more of the following options: the UE 102 alwaystransmits SLSS on anchor CCs or only if it has transmission on anyaggregated CCs; the UE 102 transmits SLSS on anchor CCs or only if ithas transmission on any aggregated CCs; the UE 102 transmits SLSS onanchor CCs if it transmits PSCCH/PSSCH on the same CC; the UE 102discontinues SLSS transmission on anchor CCs if it needs to transmitPSCCH/PSSCH on non-anchor CCs (for instance, temporally retunes to otherCC); the UE 102 drops SLSS transmission on anchor CCs to prioritizePSCCH/PSSCH transmission on non-anchor CCs in case of sidelink TXconflict across CCs; the UE 102 drops PSCCH/PSSCH transmission toprioritize SLSS transmission on anchor CCs in case of sidelink TXconflict across CCs; the UE 102 avoids sidelink TX conflict throughproper resource selection at non-anchor CCs taking into account TX/RXswitching time across CCs that can be accomplished by excludingsubframes adjacent to SLSS subframe during resource selection orresource configuration procedures; and/or other.

In some embodiments, as part of a sidelink carrier aggregationframework, a single synchronization reference may be used for allaggregated component carriers from the TX UE perspective.

At the same time from RX perspective multiple different synchronizationsources may exist at different carriers. In this case, one or more ofthe following options can be considered for reception timing. Theoptions presented below (referred to as option 1 and option 2) shouldnot be confused with options/elements of same name or similar namedescribed elsewhere herein. In option 1, synchronization source for eachcomponent carrier may be derived independently. In this case LTE R14procedure of TX synchronization source selection could be used at anycarrier independently. The main flow of this scheme lies in necessity ofmultiple timings tracking that may significantly increase receivercomplexity. In order to avoid this complexity we propose another option(option 2, described below). In option 2 a single synchronizationreference may be used for transmission/reception in all aggregatedsidelink CCs. The single synchronization source selection rule acrossmultiple CCs may be defined. In some embodiments, R14 sidelinksynchronization procedure may be used and may be generalized to the caseof multiple aggregated CCs. The synchronization source selectionprocedure may be complemented with additional tie breaking rules used toselect synchronization reference among multiple CCs and in particularaddresses the case of the same priority synchronization sources aredetected at different CCs.

In some embodiments, the following modification may be used: specifyreceiver behavior wherein a common synchronization reference is used forreception at all aggregated carriers.

In some embodiments, including but not limited to embodiments in whichmulti-carrier SLSS synchronization is used, multiple SLSS with the samesync source may be received over multiple carriers. In such cases, someadditional rule to select carrier and synchronization source for SLSSsynchronization may be used. One or more of the following tie-breakingrules may be used independently or in combination to selectsynchronization reference in cases in which SLSS transmissions ondifferent CCs have the same synchronization source priority. In someembodiments, a tie breaking rule may be based on SLSS resources signalstrength comparison. In some embodiments, a tie breaking rule may bebased on S-RSRP based on PSBCH DMRS measurements. In some embodiments, atie breaking rule may be based on SLSS signal reception quality metric.In a non-limiting example, the estimated SNR value may be used. Inanother non-limiting example, the estimated SINR value may be used. Inanother non-limiting example, the sidelink RSRQ measurements could beused to select reference SLSS. Embodiments are not limited to theseexamples, as any suitable parameter(s)/element(s) may be used.

In some embodiments, a tie breaking rule may be based on synchronizationsignal availability metric. This metric may reflect the number ofsynchronization resources in which a synchronization signal wassuccessfully detected compared with a total number of monitoredsynchronization resources.

In some embodiments, the following modification may be used: apply LTER14 priority rules for synchronization source selection across multipleaggregated CCs and define tie breaking rules for sync source selectionacross CCs. The tie-breaking rule may be based on one or more thefollowing options. In some embodiments, the tie breaking rule may bebased on SLSS resources signal strength comparison. In some embodiments,the tie breaking rule may be based on S-RSRP based on PSBCH DMRSmeasurements. In some embodiments, the tie breaking rule may be based onSLSS signal reception quality metric. In a non-limiting example, theestimated SNR value may be used. In another non-limiting example, theestimated SINR value may be used. In another non-limiting example, thesidelink RSRQ measurements may be used to select reference SLSS.Embodiments are not limited to these examples, as any suitableparameter(s)/element(s) may be used. In some embodiments, the tiebreaking rule may be based on synchronization signal availabilitymetric. This metric may reflect the number of synchronization resourceswhere synchronization signal was successfully detected compared with atotal number of monitored synchronization resources. In someembodiments, a method of sidelink synchronization procedure acrossmultiple aggregated sidelink component carriers (CCs) may comprise oneor more of: transmission, by the UE 102, of a sidelink synchronizationsignal (SLSS); reception, by the UE 102, of sidelink synchronizationsignal (SLSS); selection, by the UE 102, of a synchronization source andcomponent carrier with high priority synchronization signal to derivetransmission timing for all CCs using common synchronization reference;selection, by the UE 102, of a synchronization source and componentcarrier with high priority synchronization signal to derive receptiontiming for all CCs using common synchronization reference; selection, bythe UE 102, of resources for synchronization signal transmission. Insome embodiments, synchronization resources for SLSS transmission may bealigned across component carriers at subframe boundaries in time andtransmitted on M out of N sidelink CCs. In some embodiments,synchronization resources for SLSS transmission may be aligned acrosscomponent carriers at subframe boundaries in time and may be allocatedin the same subframe. In some embodiments, synchronization resources forSLSS transmission may be aligned across component carriers at subframeboundaries in time and may be allocated in a same subframe and whereinonly one anchor CC is used for SLSS transmission (that is, M=1 out ofN>1). In some embodiments, transmit timing on all CCs may be the same astiming used on Anchor CC.

In some embodiments, a same ‘DFN offset’ parameter may be used on allCCs. In some embodiments, a common ‘syncOffsetIndicator’ parameter maybe used on all CCs. In some embodiments, SLSS transmission on Anchor CCmay be prioritized over other sidelink transmission on non-Anchor CCs.In some embodiments, data transmission may be prioritized over SLSStransmission on Anchor CC. In some embodiments, resources forsynchronization signals from different synchronization sources may beconfigured on different CCs. In some embodiments, synchronization signaltransmission may be discontinued at least for the time interval ofactive data transmission in case of inter-CC transmission conflict. Insome embodiments, SLSS transmission may be prioritized over datatransmission in case of inter-CC transmission conflict. In someembodiments, data transmission may be prioritized over SLSS transmissionin case of inter-CC transmission conflict. In some embodiments, datacandidate resources overlapped in time with SLSS resources and TX/RXswitching time intervals may be excluded from resource selectioncandidate sets. In some embodiments, multiple SLSS may be transmittedand received on multiple CCs and only single CC and SLSS synchronizationreference with higher priority may be selected for transmission andreception.

In some embodiments, one or more additional tie-breaking rules may bedefined to select one SLSS reference across aggregated CCs. One or moreof the following may be used: a tie breaking rule based on SLSSresources signal strength comparison; a tie breaking rule based onS-RSRP based on PSBCH DMRS measurements; a tie breaking rule based onSLSS signal reception quality metric, wherein reception quality metricmay be represented with signal-to-noise ratio, signal-to-interferenceplus noise ratio, RSRQ metric and/or other; a tie breaking rule based onsynchronization signal availability metric; and/or other.

In Example 1, an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) may comprise memory.The apparatus may further comprise processing circuitry. The processingcircuitry may be configured to attempt to decode sidelinksynchronization signals (SLSSs) received on component carriers (CCs) ofa carrier aggregation. In one configuration of the carrier aggregation,synchronization resources for SLSS transmissions may be: aligned acrossthe CCs at subframe boundaries in time, restricted to a portion of theCCs, and restricted to a same sub-frame. The processing circuitry may befurther configured to, for each of the CCs on which one or more SLSSsare decoded, determine a priority level for the CC based on indicatorsin the SLSSs received on the CC. The processing circuitry may be furtherconfigured to select, from the CCs on which one or more SLSSs aredecoded, the CC for which the determined priority level is highest. Theprocessing circuitry may be further configured to determine a referencetiming for sidelink communication based on the one or more SLSSsreceived on the selected CC. The memory may be configured to storeinformation identifying the reference timing.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein in anotherconfiguration of the carrier aggregation, synchronization resources forSLSS transmissions may be: aligned across the CCs at subframe boundariesin time, restricted to an anchor CC, and restricted to a same sub-frame.

In Example 3, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-2, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured todetermine the reference timing based on a timing of the anchor CC.

In Example 4, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-3, wherein: SLSS transmission on the anchor CC may be prioritized overother sidelink transmissions on other non-anchor CCs; or datatransmission may be prioritized over SLSS transmission on the anchor CC.

In Example 5, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-4, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured toencode a frame for transmission in the sidelink communication based on:a common direct frame number (DFN) for the CCs, or a commonsynchronization offset indicator parameter for the CCs.

In Example 6, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-5, wherein: transmission of synchronization signals may bediscontinued at least for a time interval of an active data transmissionif an inter-CC transmission conflict occurs; SLSS transmission may beprioritized over data transmission if an inter-CC transmission conflictoccurs; or data transmission may be prioritized over SLSS transmissionif an inter-CC transmission conflict occurs.

In Example 7, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-6, wherein candidate resources for data transmission that areoverlapped in time with resources for SLSS transmission andtransmit-receive switching time intervals may be excluded from candidateresources for SLSS transmission.

In Example 8, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-7, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured todetermine the common reception timing at the CCs.

In Example 9, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-8, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured to, ifat least two of the determined priority levels are the same as thehighest priority level, select the CC further based on one or more of: atie-breaking rule based on a comparison of signal strength of thedecoded SLSSs; a tie-breaking rule based on sidelink reference signalreceived power (S-RSRP) based on physical sidelink broadcast channel(PSBCH) demodulation reference symbol (DMRS) measurements; atie-breaking rule based on a signal reception quality metric based on asignal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio(SINR), or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) metric; and atie-breaking rule based on a synchronization signal availability metric.

In Example 10, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples1-9, wherein the apparatus may further include a transceiver to receivethe SLSSs. The processing circuitry may include a baseband processor todecode the SLSSs.

In Example 11, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium maystore instructions for execution by one or more processors to performoperations for communication by a generation Node-B (gNB). Theoperations may configure the one or more processors to decode, from aUser Equipment (UE), information related to reception capability of theUE, wherein the information includes a maximum modulation order or amaximum number of spatial layers for reception at the UE. The operationsmay further configure the one or more processors to determine, based onthe received information, one or more parameters to be used for limitedbuffer rate-matching (LBRM) for encoding of downlink packets. One of theparameters may indicate a reference transport block size (TBS) based onthe maximum configured bandwidth of downlink (DL) bandwidth parts (BWPs)configured for reception at the UE. The operations may further configurethe one or more processors to encode a downlink packet for transmissionto the UE. The packet may be encoded in accordance with the LBRM.

In Example 12, the subject matter of Example 11, wherein the operationsmay further configure the one or more processors to determine thereference TBS based on one or more of: a reference number of spatiallayers, a reference pilot overhead, a reference resource allocation, anda reference subcarrier spacing.

In Example 13, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples11-12, wherein the reference TBS is a first reference TBS, and the LBRMis a first LBRM. The operations may further configure the one or moreprocessors to determine, based on the received information,configuration information to be used for a second LBRM for encoding ofuplink packets by the UE. The configuration information may include asecond reference TBS based on a maximum configured bandwidth of uplink(UL) BWPs configured for transmission at the UE. The operations mayfurther configure the one or more processors to encode, for transmissionto the UE, a message that indicates the configuration information. Theoperations may further configure the one or more processors to decode anuplink packet received from the UE. The uplink packet may be decoded inaccordance with the second LBRM.

In Example 14, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples11-13, wherein the configuration information may further include a typeof rate-matching to be used for the second LBRM. The type ofrate-matching may be full buffer rate-matching or LBRM.

In Example 15, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples11-14, wherein the operations may further configure the processingcircuitry to determine the second reference TBS based on one or more of:a reference number of spatial layers, a reference pilot overhead, areference resource allocation, and a reference subcarrier spacing.

In Example 16, an apparatus of a Generation Node-B (gNB) may comprisememory. The apparatus may further comprise processing circuitry. Theprocessing circuitry may be configured to determine time resources andfrequency resources allocated for pre-emption of traffic fortransmission of higher priority traffic. The processing circuitry may befurther configured to encode, for transmission, control signaling thatindicates the time resources and the frequency resources allocation forthe pre-emption. The processing circuitry may be further configured toencode, for transmission, a pre-emption indicator that indicates that aUser Equipment (UE) is to receive a pre-empted transmission. Thepre-emption indicator may be included in a group common downlink controlinformation (DCI). The memory may be configured to store informationidentifying the time resources and the frequency resources allocated forthe pre-emption.

In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 16, wherein the timeresources allocated for the pre-emption may: start at a starting symbolof a control resource set occasion for pre-emption indication DCImonitoring; and end immediately before a starting symbol of a nextcontrol resource set occasion for pre-emption indication DCI monitoring.

In Example 18, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples16-17, wherein the time resources allocated for the pre-emption may:start immediately after a final symbol of a control resource setoccasion for pre-emption indication DCI monitoring; and end at a finalsymbol of a next control resource set occasion for pre-emptionindication DCI monitoring.

In Example 19, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples16-18, wherein the pre-emption indicator may include a bitmap of sizeequal to a product of a number of time partitions and a number offrequency partitions.

In Example 20, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples16-19, wherein if a number of frequency partitions is greater than one,a frequency-first mapping may be used for the frequency resourcesallocated for the pre-emption. For the frequency-first mapping, an indexof the frequency partitions may increase with an increase in bit indexesin the bitmap.

The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b)requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the natureand gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with theunderstanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scopeor meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporatedinto the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as aseparate embodiment.

1.-20. (canceled)
 21. An apparatus comprising: memory; and processing circuitry in communication with the memory, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: determine a pre-emption of time-frequency resources for transmission of low latency traffic; and transmit control signaling that indicates the pre-emption of time-frequency resources via a bitmap, wherein bits of the bitmap are indexed between a least significant bit (LSB) and a most significant bit (MSB), and wherein each bit of the bitmap corresponds to a time partition with no granularity in frequency.
 22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the bitmap comprises 14 bits.
 23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the resource is divided into 14 time partitions.
 24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein each bit the bitmap indicates whether or not a corresponding resource is pre-empted.
 25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein a bit value of 1 indicates that the corresponding resource is pre-empted.
 26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein a bit value of 0 indicates that the corresponding resource is not pre-empted.
 27. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the bitmap in included in a group common downlink control information.
 28. the apparatus of claim 21, wherein at least a part of the pre-empted time-frequency resources are used for transmission of the low latency traffic.
 29. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the bitmap corresponds to a set of M Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol groups.
 30. A method for indicating pre-emption of pre-emption of time-frequency resources for transmission of low latency traffic, comprising: a base station, determining a pre-emption of time-frequency resources for transmission of low latency traffic; and transmitting control signaling that indicates the pre-emption of time-frequency resources via a bitmap, wherein bits of the bitmap are indexed between a least significant bit (LSB) and a most significant bit (MSB), and wherein each bit of the bitmap corresponds to a time partition with no granularity in frequency.
 31. The method of claim 30, wherein the bitmap comprises 14 bits.
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein the resource is divided into 14 time partitions.
 33. The method of claim 30, wherein bits of the bitmap are indexed between a least significant bit (LSB) and a most significant bit (MSB).
 34. The method of claim 30, wherein each bit the bitmap indicates whether or not a corresponding resource is pre-empted, wherein a bit value of 1 indicates that the corresponding resource is pre-empted, and wherein a bit value of 0 indicates that the corresponding resource is not pre-empted.
 35. The method of claim 30, wherein the bitmap corresponds to a set of M Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol groups.
 36. The method of claim 30, wherein the bitmap is in included in a group common downlink control information.
 37. A user equipment (UE) comprising: a transceiver to receive one or more component carriers (CCs); one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver; and processing circuitry in communication with the transceiver and configured to perform operations including: decode control signaling that indicates a pre-emption of time-frequency resources via a bitmap, wherein each bit of the bitmap corresponds to a time partition with no granularity in frequency.
 38. The UE of claim 37, wherein the bitmap comprises 14 bits, and wherein the resource is divided into 14 time partitions.
 39. The UE of claim 37, wherein each bit the bitmap indicates whether or not a corresponding resource is pre-empted, wherein a bit value of 1 indicates that the corresponding resource is pre-empted, and wherein a bit value of 0 indicates that the corresponding resource is not pre-empted.
 40. The UE of claim 37, wherein the bitmap is in included in a group common downlink control information. 